


The Colorful White Walls

by killjjoy



Series: The 2019 Saga [1]
Category: Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Album), Frank Iero and the Patience, Hesitant Alien - Gerard Way (Album), Mikey Way - Fandom, My Chemical Romance
Genre: Emo, F/M, Fanfic, MCR, Music, Punk, danger days, dangerdays, my chemical romance - Freeform, rock - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-22
Updated: 2018-07-23
Packaged: 2019-04-06 12:15:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 46
Words: 31,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14056800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/killjjoy/pseuds/killjjoy
Summary: Callista Wes is an escapee from the horrible dictatorship known as Battery City and the Japanese company Better Living Industries. She is saved by The Killjoys and she becomes one of them. Follow her adventures and her romance with a particular Killjoy whose name means "F*** you" in Italian."My eyes flutter open and I’m struck with a sight I’m haven’t seen at all. I was in the car I saw before, in the arms of someone. But, who? What? My vision is still clearing up. I turn my head to the right and look in front of me, in the driver’s seat I see red hair. Red hair only everyone in Battery City knows.Party Poison.A Killjoy."((Started on Wattpad))





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lucy Ann B.](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Lucy+Ann+B.).



{Introduction}  
~-Get To Know-~  
DR. DEATH DEFYING: The leader of the first generation of Killjoys  
DJ for the Zones  
Keeps a notebook full of every little thing everyone does so he has to he can blackmail them  
Was in an incident while fighting in the Helium Wars and damaged his legs, hence the electric wheelchair  
DJ HOT CHIMP: Only girl who was in the first generation of Killjoys  
Known to be destructive yet empathic  
AGENT CHERRI COLA: Father to Pinkie  
Part of the first gen of Killjoys  
Suddenly disappeared after the Helium Wars, no one else knows where he is  
TOMMY CHOW MEIN: Part of first gen of Killjoys  
Now runs a store  
Is basically like the Grunkle Stan of the Zones  
SHOW PONY: Identifies as a female but often gets identified as male but doesn’t care either way  
Sarcastic, sassy, and sometimes rude  
Collects shoelaces  
Skates in and out of the city via a tiny entrance she made to collect news for Dr. D’s station  
KORSE: Top S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W/ exterminator in Battery CIty. Has spent years in training  
THE DIRECTOR: CEO of Better Living Industries and controls everything in Bat City  
DESTROYA: A god that some in Bat City believe it and that he can save them  
Common gifts are: bot parts, jars of rainwater, and wire art  
PHOENIX WITCH: Known as the “Goddess of The Zones”  
When offerings are given to her, she gives them to the dead  
Acts kind of like the Grim Reaper  
Sometimes scratches on people’s walls at night and laughs when then freak out  
PARTY POISON: Leader of the second generation or called “THE Killjoys”  
Deaf in his left ear  
DO NOT give sugar  
Hide any and all hair dye from him  
SassyTM  
KOBRA KID: “Knows Kung Fu”  
Only one in the group who can use the Vend-A-Hack and refuses to tell anyone because it’s “his thing”  
Has insomnia  
Has sparring matches with Acid Candy  
Holds long grudges  
JET STAR: Has a medical background and cares for The Killjoy’s injuries  
Born in Zone 6  
Cares for everyone  
DANGER HEART: The youngest and newest member. Real name is Pinkie Temple  
Has a BL/ind “miracle” drug addiction  
Depression over her mother that has passed away  
She has a crush on Party  
ACID CANDY: BL/ind escapee, was in training to become a S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W.  
Real name: Callista Wes  
Watched her parents get shot in front of her when she was little  
Paints ray guns as a hobby  
Insane love for Mad Gear and Missile Kid  
Can speak Japanese  
Lots of knowledge in hand-to-hand combat, since that what she was taught in BL  
When anxious, she picks at her lip and causes it to bleed  
FUN GHOUL: Cuddling master!  
Has guilt induced nightmares. It can be anywhere from cute little noises to full out night terrors  
Has a secret talent for photography  
ALWAYS talks about what his name means in Italian  
Has a love fro Acid Candy


	2. Chapter 1: The Star That Took Away My Family

[Callista POV]  
A shooting star, I’ve never seen one of those. The city lights drown out the stars, or at least that’s what I’ve been told. Just a bottomless dark sky. “Mom, mom! Come here!” I jumped around and laughed. I was supposed to be asleep with my white noise headphones in, but I couldn’t sleep. “Callista? Go to sleep!” Mom warned me. I was too excited and happy! Mom picked me up and threw me back into bed and put my headphones on. “Please, sleep.” She said. Once she left the room I took my headphones off and looked out the window again.  
I hear someone kicking open the door. I run downstairs to see Better Living workers hold my mom up to a gun. “Is this your daughter?” They asked. “Name and age.”  
“Y-Yes, Callista Wes, age 10.” My mother closed her eyes, knowing what was about to happen to her. I try to run towards her and hold on, but a worker held me back right as my mother’s blood splattered on the walls. I screamed and wept. “NO!” I try to escape their grasp as my dad walked in the door. He yelled and tried to hurt the workers, they shot him too. I cried more and more. I tried to yell ‘help!’ but the worker holding me covered my mouth. I felt a pinch in my neck and I passed out.

[SIXTEEN YEARS LATER]


	3. Escaping Their Grasp, Part I

[SIXTEEN YEARS LATER]

I had to escape. It was either escape or be turned into a human-killing machine. I had to escape this dictatorship-ridden city that is named Battery City. I would rather die trying to run away than being turned into my worst nightmare. Inside these walls, inside this city, there’s three police forces. Traffic Exterminators (Lowest class extermination), Draculoids (Most common extermination), and S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W/s (Highest class extermination.) Outside of the city is the desert. It is divided up into six zones. The zones are full of color, passion, and loudness. And here. . . Here is filled with white, gray, dullness, emotionless. Everything here is lacking color or personality. 

When I was ten years old, Better Living forced me to watch them kill my parents after they “broke” a law. It was actually me who broke the law. I’m now twenty-six. Scarecrows killed my parents and currently I’m being trained to become one. Escaping is almost impossible, everyone who tries ends up getting shot down by Draculoids. After my parent’s passing, the city took me into the headquarters to start my schooling and training. We’re always taught that the Zones are a bad place, but I don’t believe it. No place could be worse than here.

“Callista Wes to control room.” I hear my name over the intercom. The voice that spoke was female. She’s the director of this mess. She has a loose Japanese accent. I walk out of my cell-like room and walk briskly to the control room. I’m never called to the control room. Only the workers are. Anxiety took over, but I couldn’t show it. Here in the headquarters, Better Living claimed everything could be fixed with different kinds of medicine, pills. And if I were to show that I was having emotions, they would find some stupid pill to give to me. They don’t know I haven’t conformed to their ways. I’m still human. But spending fifteen years being trained to kill people you learn how to act and fake your way through it all. I hate the thing they’re trying to make me.   
“Callista,” I was greeted by the director. She was wearing her usual grey suit and tied to her hip, her katana. “We need you to lead a group of outnumbered Draculoids. There’s a protest happening near the city border. We want everyone protester dead.” I stood tall with a blank expression before proceeding to nod. This was my daily. And at night I would have night terrors about the blood I have on my hands.   
“Go.” The director stated before walking away to tend to the security cameras. I saw the protesters on them. They’re the ones who aren’t afraid to die for freedom. Like I am.

Outside of the room, there’s a huge gallery of weaponry. I grab one of the bigger ray guns and head out. If I didn’t do this job, I would be put to death for “ignorant behavior.” The headquarters lies in the heart of the city and it is too far to march to the city walls to take care of what I’m forced to be doing. I took one of the vans only the exterminators use to travel. The protesters could be heard from several miles away from their initial spot.   
“Freedom! Freedom!” I heard them chanting, holding up white signs with the black Better Living logo crossed out violently. I agreed with them. I wanted freedom, but to hopefully achieve that I had to kill and do the job I was unfortunately raised to do. They saw my van pull up. There were already Draculoids trying to hold them back, and once I stepped foot out of the van they started to shoot at the protestors. My eyes closed for a second, hearing a thud after thud.   
“Monsters!” A compliant screamed right as a Draculoid shot him in the chest. Now I had to do what I always had to do. Force myself to pull the trigger. Being brought up in the city headquarters, my firearm aiming is impeccable. I tried to focus on the sound of white noise instead of the sound of innocent’s dying. We are the monsters. We’re killing the innocent. I looked to the floor and did my job.

…

The cool, dry night was falling over Battery City. I was hanging out by the wall, hoping I could slip out into Zone 1. But that wasn’t going to happen. It was heavily guarded by Traffic Exterminators.   
“Scarecrow Wes, aren’t you supposed to be back at the headquarters?” I ignore the exterminator. What’s he going to do? I’m a scarecrow. It’s not like he can just shoot me. He would die for that.   
“Wes! Get back to headquarters!” I hear another Traffic Exterminator by the toll booth. He’s the head of the traffic, he could report me. I narrow my eyes towards the masked figure and get back to the van. Driving the van quickly, I made it back. Scarecrows barely get in trouble for speeding. But if any other citizen did it, man, would they be facing death. The director is waiting outside the door for me. I hear my name being called out in a disapproving tone. “Callista Wes!”  
“Traffic Extermination needed help with the last of the protesters.” I lied, I was that protestor. I was hoping to escape then. The director grabbed my shoulder, but I shoved past her. I put away my ray gun on the wall and go back to my cell.

…

I laid awake, I don’t have a clock or anything. I’m judging on the time based off the sounds I hear. At night, the citizens of Battery City are issued to wear white noise headphones. So if anything were to happen and extermination had to, well, exterminate somebody the citizens wouldn’t live in fear. That’s how my parents died. I didn’t wear my headphones like I was supposed to at night and they found out, came in, and took my parents away from me.   
Listening intently, I didn’t hear the shuffle of workers in the halls outside, and I didn’t hear any commotion from citizens. This was my time. Time to escape this color forbidden city. Time to go into color, into a new life. Time to not kill anymore. I stand up and look around the room one last time. I have no belongings. My life was stripped from me when my parents died. I forgot who I was.   
I walked over to the door and and slowly pushed it open. The workers trust Scarecrows to keep the doors unlocked, since we’re considered the superior exterminators. There’s only two of us. Me and a man named Korse. The door opens quickly with no creaking. I feel my heart rate increase and I haven’t even gotten to the hardest part of my quest. 

…

The breeze hit my face caused from the swish of the automatic doors that led to the city streets. I managed to sneak around any potential predators. On my way out I stopped by that large cabinet to grab myself a handheld ray gun. It was fully white, just like everything in this city. I couldn’t take a van. That would draw too much suspicion. To make myself even less noticeable I decided I was going to go through the slums of the city and then travel along the wall. 

The slums are such a dark part that I luckily didn’t go to much. For a city that demands to be clean, the slums are berated for just the tiniest bit of grime. I travelled through them unwillingly. It was surprisingly painless. I kept myself in the dark and no one bothered me. Now walking along the wall wall was going to be tough. There are Draculoids on patrol 24/7. That’s made because some people who aren’t affected by Better Living’s ‘medication’ come to the realization that this place is trapping and keeping us from color and potential. To them, color and freedom is the enemy. Better Living Industries knows that everyone who lives in Zones 1-6 are against them and planning to overthrow the city. Some say there are these heroes. A group of four called “The Killjoys.”


	4. Escaping Their Grasp, Part II

Now it’s my time. I’m staring freedom in its face. I find a toll where no Traffic Exterminator was on duty. It’s time for me, Ex-S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W Callista Wes, to start a new life of color. I’m finally going t-- Wait. What was that? I-I know that sound...no… No…! It can’t be… NO! Th-That alarm… The headquarters… They knowed I’ve escaped. I run. That’s the only thing I know how to do at the moment. I held my breath for so long I was close to collapsing and passing out. I run out of the city. There’s a stream of laser beams flying over my shoulders. There’s vans and motorcycles driving up behind me. I don’t have time to shoot back at them. I’m a trained fighter, I should know how to fight. But...but…. But I’ve never dealt with this much. I’m greeted with an endless desert. I’m officially in Zone 1 and out of that city. But they’re still chasing me. I dive behind a bunch of dead bushes and continue to make my way behind collapsed buildings and big rocks.

A few of the gun shots are so close to me I feel the heat of the laser graze my skin. I’m going to win this fight-...   
I scream out in pain, one of the beams pierces through my hip. I can feel the laser heat up the bone. I fall onto the sand and put my hand where the beam went in. Since it’s not a regular bullet (Everyone did away with those years ago.) the laser cauterizes the wound. At least I won’t bleed out. I may die from this probable bone damage. I blacked out. 

… 

I suddenly come back. The sounds of screaming and and more laser beams snap me into survival mode. I scream in pain, my all white uniform now covered in dirt, sand, and dried blood. I clutch my left hip, where the shot was, and stood up. I bob and weaved, shooting back at the Draculoids and other exterminators who want my blood now. I’m now a felon. I’m an escapee.


	5. The Night Stars, O How Beautiful

Did I escape? The shooting has stopped and no one is chasing me anymore. It’s dark now. I’m limping and there’s still incredible damage to my hip. I wish I could curl up… but I can’t give up now. I can’t. I’m not out of Zone 1 and it’s the smallest Zone. I need to get to the middle of Zone 2. No, first I need to sleep. I walk a little further and find a formation of rocks to lay down behind. I was mostly hidden. I curl up in a tiny ball despite the pain it causes, and I cry. I cry out of happiness. I’m out of Battery City. I’m not a slave to Better Living Industries. I’m not a Scarecrow anymore. I’m a human who’s allowed to have color and life. 

 

I turn onto my back hoping that’ll be more comfortable and see something I’ve never seen before. Stars. The city’s bright lights flushed out this… this beauty I didn’t know the world had to offer. Then I see a shooting star, just like the one that ruined everything, but I smile. The stars seem much more beautiful.   
My dad always talked about planets beyond the stars. He said before Battery City was built he was sit out at night and try to spot the planets with a device, what was it called? Tele- something. I don’t remember, it was so long ago. I stared at the stars till I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. My breath was taken, they were so beautiful.


	6. Music? I Only Know White Noise

The night was more than painful. My hip kept bugging me and no matter what I did it always hurt. This is going to be a burden I can’t escape now. It takes me a few moments to sit up and eventually stand. I stretch my arms and limp out onto a dust and sand covered road. I was past the close Zone shelters, the ones by the city, but far away from the next one, which was on the border of Zone 2. So the road I’m walking is barren and if anyone were to spot me I don’t have that many places to hide.

I go as far as I can until I have to sit down and recover a little bit. I think about how in world I lived through that. It was open gunfire. ‘How?’ I continue to ask myself. I can’t wrap my brain around that I’m not dead, or back in the city. I lose my balance and fall onto my injured hip. I scream in pain involuntarily. After I quiet down, I hear something in the distance. Is that music? I laugh, music was prohibited in the city. Only white noise was allowed to us. I push myself up and then I see a car. The distinct paint job of this car is one that is engraved into the minds of every exterminator in Battery City. The four people in that car are none other than The Killjoys. I wave my arms, then the car stops and they get out to help me.

I try to stand up but I end up falling back down to where the pain is most. My surroundings turned black and the mysteriously hardcore music faded away.   
…

My eyes flutter open and I’m struck with a sight I’m haven’t seen at all. I was in the car I saw before, in the arms of someone. But, who? What? My vision is still clearing up. I turn my head to the right and look in front of me, in the driver’s seat I see red hair. Red hair only everyone in Battery City knows.

Party Poison.

A Killjoy.

I then look to the person who is currently holding me, long black hair with that hell of a scar on his mouth. Fun Ghoul, I identify him. He’s not looking at me, he’s talking to Kobra Kid who’s in the passenger's seat. Jet Star sees me conscious and alerts everyone else. “She’s awake!” Party turns his head back to look at me before Ghoul yelled at him to stop swerving.   
“Are you alright? You looked like you were in a lot of pain.” Jet Star asks me and Ghoul lets go of me and doesn’t make eye contact with me. I sit in the middle of them, being squished.   
“I only remember being chas-Ow!” I put my hand on my hip and Jet grabs my wrist. “Don’t touch it.” I was about to continue my thought then I realized I need to stop because I was just about to say I was being chased by BLI. I just escaped the hands of death, I don’t want to go back into them.  
“I looked at your wound while you were passed out, and it’s bad. Party! Step it up! I need to get her wound taken care of back at the hideout!”  
“Do you want to attract company right now?” The red head snapped sassily. Before Jet could answer Party continued. “No, you don’t. Thus, I’m not going any fucking faster.”  
Ghoul kicked the back of Party’s seat. “Chill the hell out. You’re as heated as this damn desert.”  
Kobra looked unamused. He stared out the windshield, not talking to anyone.


	7. Jet Star The Mom

After some words being said, we were back at the hideout. Wow, the people who I was trained to kill are helping me. I try to get out of the car.  
“Oh no, you’re not walking. The wound might open. The skin is already weak as is” Jet put his hand on my shoulder to stop me from getting up then proceeded to pick me up. “Have you had severe injuries like this before?”  
“No,” I lied. Being forced to watch your mom and dad be killed causes worse injuries than getting shot in the hip. I’ve been hurt worse. Jet nodded and and quickly carried me inside.  
“Ghoul, move. I’m going to put her on the couch.”  
“No. I’m comfortable.”  
“You fucking idiot, move.” Party stared down Ghoul till he moved onto the floor next to the beaten up couch that barely had any worth to it. It was a piece of shit. When Jet carefully laid me down he told me to lay flat on my back and not on my side as that could cause more damage. “Stay here.”  
“I’m not going to be confined to a couch.” I speak up.  
“Do you want to never walk the same again?” Jet looked over his shoulder. “Don’t. Move.” He sounded like a mom. Which was oddly comforting. I complied and laid there, looking at the tattered ceiling.   
“Where did you come from anyway? No one just lies on the side of the road looking beaten up like that.” Ghoul looked over to me and asked. I didn’t know how to answer. If I told them that I came from BL would they toss me back out? I need to play it safe. Luckily, before I could say anything Jet ‘scolded’ Ghoul. “Don’t push her to answer things right now. We’ll ask later. She needs to heal, she looks like she’s been through some rough shit.” Thank our god Destroya and thank the Phoenix Witch, I have just a little time to come up with a story. A believable one.  
Jet grabbed my wrist and helped me to sit up. “I’m going to wrap this gauze around your hip, okay? Be still.” I nodded in response and winced whenever something touched my injury. Kobra was whispering something to Party, something I couldn’t make out. Ghoul was sitting against the wall drinking a soda, looking at me when I look away and looking away when I look at him.   
“Ghoul! The radio is broken.” Party tells him. “Come fuck with it.”  
“I can /fuck it/ if that’s what you’re asking.”  
“Retard.”  
Ghoul chuckled and got up, knocking over his soda. “Fuck!” He groaned and went to go fix the radio and mess with it. Jet got me all wrapped up and told me to lay down again, which I did.


	8. Callista? No-no You Need Something Snazzier

It came evening time and I was still laying on this uncomfortable couch. Everyone was outside doing something. What? I don’t know. But I wanted to find out. I slowly got up, wincing every step of the way. I make my way outside and see the four sitting around a fire, laughing.   
“Hey! Look who it is!” I guess that is Party’s way of greeting me. “Come sit!” I see Jet quietly face palming, I knew I shouldn’t have gotten up.  
“What’s your name anyway?” Ghoul looked up to me.  
I move my head and look at him and say, “Callista.”  
“You need something snazzier. Hm… Callista won’t work if you’re going to be hanging with us, keep your name hidden from BL.” Party interjected. “Something like,”  
“Acid Candy!” Ghoul snapped and laughed.  
“Damn. I like it. Acid Candy.” Party chuckled and shook his head. Little did he realize that Ghoul got that from a crushed soda can across the room. Keep my name hidden from BL huh? That wasn’t a bad idea actually. But, goddammit! I told them my real name, fuck! Well, it’s The Killjoys. . . they’re not out to get me, they still don’t know where I came from. I stay quiet for the rest of the time we’re by the fire while the guys talk and laugh.  
“C’mon, let’s get back inside.” Party said and stood up. Cobra muttered something under his breath and followed. Jet and Ghoul followed closely after. I slowly stood up but fell back onto the sand. Ghoul saw me and lent a hand. He pulled me up and put his arm around me to help me inside. I sat back down on the couch I was bound to earlier.   
“Do you want to sleep there for the night?” Jet asked.  
“I would like to sleep outside, under the stars.” I said, I would do anything to be under the stars again.  
“It’s not safe for you, Draculoids could come and ghost you.” Cobra actually spoke to me for once. Shit, I forgot about them, I was higher than them so I was never worried, now I have to.  
“Oh, yeah. . . I’ll sleep here.” And with that the four scurried from the room and went to their respective corners of the hideout, divided by curtains.   
“‘Night guys, Acid Candy.” Party called out and I could hear him roll over onto his side. I laid on my back, it was the only position where it didn’t hurt my hip. I fell asleep after a long time of laying there trying to get comfortable on the /un/comfortable couch.


	9. No, Dr. Douchebag. Of Course Dr. Death Defying!

[A MONTH AND A HALF LATER]

I wake up from my deep sleep. Since I got here I slept on the couch but now I sleep against one of the walls with my own tattered curtain dividing me from everyone else.   
“TIME TO GO! WAKE UP!” Jet yelled over every little nonexistent sound. We all groaned and got up. “What or where are we going?” Ghoul rudely comments.  
“Dr. D’s” Party answered him before Jet could rip Ghoul a new asshole. I heard about Dr. D when I was in training, he is the main radio station owner of the Zones. When we were going to go for our great strike he was one of the first we had to take out, because he could get information out to everyone. “Dr. D? As in Death Defying?” I ask just to make sure.  
“No, Dr. Douchebag, what else?” Ghoul rolled his eyes and laughed. “Of course Dr. D.” I nod, not acknowledging his attempt at humor.   
We all get outside and pile into the TransAm, that’s the official name of it I’ve learned. I get squished in the back in the middle between Jet and Ghoul. I’m very curious of their real names, in BL we couldn’t even find those out. I have to tell them at some point my real background, as far as they know I could have escaped some random Zone team that are violent. “Kick it, Party! I wanna see Dr. D!” Ghoul kicked the back of his seat and Party grumbled and hit the gas causing us all to fly back into our seats. “Jesus Christ.” Kobra muttered and crossed his arms.

It took us a total of twenty minutes to drive to the shack. On the way we listened to some music. It was so unfamiliar to me. “What is this?” I ask. “Punk.” Jet responds, “Ghoul’s favorite.” I look to my left where Ghoul is singing, more like screaming, the lyrics and banging his head. I was not used to this behavior, so I chuckled. He somehow heard me over the loud music and looked at me and smiled, his scar exaggerating it. “How do you not know this song? Mad Gear and Missile Kid man!! “Fuck This Whole Wide World!!” As the main part of the song came, Party and Ghoul started singing. They were screaming, “She said, c’mon! C’mon! Kiss my battery! C’mon! C’mon! I’ll be your android girl! C’mon! C’mon and fuck this whole wide world!” Coming from the city, this music, or noise, was prohibited. But honestly, I’m kind of liking it despite Jet and Kobra sighing loudly. Kobra went to turn it down and Ghoul threw a soda can at his head. “Bullseye! Or should I say Kobraeye!”   
“Shut the hell up.” Kobra threw the can back at Ghoul and Party laughed. “Holy shit you two fight more than him and I do! And we’re brothers!” Woah, they’re brothers? They are like the complete opposites of each other, as far as personality goes. “Here’s the shack!” A person with blue polka dot leggings and a white shirt came out holding a pair of rollerskates. “Show Pony!!” Party yelled and jumped out of the car to hug her. I’ve never heard of Show Pony inside BL.  
“New recruit?” Show Pony looked at me and smiled, dropping her skates and extending her hand out to me. “I’m Show Pony! You?” Before I could say anything Party interrupted me, I guess he was fearful that I would say my real name. “This is Acid Candy, found her on the side of the road.” “Party, what have I said about picking up random people?” Dr. D. came out sitting in an electric wheelchair. “Hello, Acid Candy!” Please don’t recognize me, please don’t recognize me, I kept thinking to myself. BLI is good about keeping their trainees out of sight from anyone but there was always that chance. Party patted my shoulder and led inside. It was very messy yet colorful. We hung out and got to know each other, it was full of laughter and that was the first time I laughed since they saved me. I laughed because Party took Show Pony’s shoelace collection and jumbled them all up. Show Pony got upset and made him reorganize them.


	10. How I Got Here, Part I

“So Acid Candy,” Show Pony started quizzically. “What were you doing when The Killjoys found you?” “Easy!” Fun Ghoul jumped in. “She was on the side of the road looking miserable.” And just like that he was laughing and no one else was and was just looking at him. Ghoul slowly stopped laughing, awkwardly. “Seriously. Acid Candy, where are you from?” Dr. D interjected. “I-I, uh…. Um.” I stuttered and crossed my arms. “I’m going to go outside, I’ll be in the car.” I run out of the shack feeling like I’m going to throw up. I can’t tell them, never can I tell them. But they are going to want to know where I came from eventually. Fuck fuck fuck. I start to freak out as I climb into the car. Jet comes out and climbs in next to me. “Hey, what’s up? Why did you flip out?”   
“Jet I’m sorry but can we leave please? I need to talk to the group, privately.” “Okay, I’ll go get everyone.” “Thanks.” With that, Jet went inside and told everyone we had to go, that I wasn’t feeling well and that my hip was killing me. 

[TIME SKIP TO HIDEOUT, 20 MINUTES]

It was mid afternoon when we got back. “I’m going to lay down.” I say. “Wait-” Ghoul started. “Seriously what is the fucking deal?” I ignore him and try to walk into the hideout, Kobra grabs my shoulder. “You’ve been here for about a month, spill.” “Can I explain tonight? Around the fire?” I get out of his grasp and limp inside.   
“She’s so hiding something.” I heard Party say from outside. I lay down on the couch and close my eyes, it feels good to be off my feet. I hear everyone walk in and talk about me.  
“What do you think it is?” Jet said.  
“Must be pretty terrible,” Party stated. “I mean, we saw her /on the side of the road./ She’s beat up, she’s in /all white./ No color. Isn’t that weird?”  
“Do you think she’s from Bat City?” Said Kobra, opening a soda can.   
“She has to be, no one wears all white out here. Hell, it’s been a month and she hasn’t changed. She is /so/ new here. Everyone here changes three times a fucking day. I want to wake her up right now and just ask her. I need to know.” Said Party.  
“What if she’s a spy?” Ghoul spoke up, “I hate to say it but we will have to get rid of her.”  
Please no, I thought. Please do anything but get rid of me, this is my new life. Please, please, please.


	11. How I Got Here, Part II

[TIME SKIP TO NIGHT]

I woke up by Jet shaking me till I was conscious. “Get outside by the fire, please.” He walked out and sat down in the sand, I heard him conversing with the others. I rub my eyes and walk out and sit next to Ghoul.  
“Spill it.” Ghoul looked at me and took a sip of his soda.  
“You wanna know? Ok.” I was getting upset, they were so persistent for the past month. “I’m an escapee from the city. I was training to… you know what? Why does my past matter?”  
“We all have a past,” Party started. “And you’re wearing all white, I knew you were from the city. Training to do what?”  
“I was training to,” I start to tear up, but I suck my tears in. “Let me start from the beginning.” I clear my throat and start with my story, my past. “When I was ten I watched my parents be shot by Draculoids.” I got interrupted by Ghoul. “Dracs. We call them Dracs out here.” “Okay, Dracs. My parents were killed by Dracs and they took me in.”   
“Why were your parents killed?” Kobra asked.  
“Does it matter?” I snap at him before looking into the fire, I felt bad for being disrespectful.  
“Damn, we have a fiesty one here.” Ghoul said, chuckling and opening a can of what looked like dog food.  
“I was training to become a Scarecrow, I was training to kill you guys. But I escaped with my hip injury and I just want to get as far from the city as I can.”  
“Do you still want to kill us?”  
“Hell no, I hate killing the innocent, I had to do it everyday for years.”  
“Who says we’re innocent? We’ve killed.”  
“But that was for good, the city are the bad people, you guys bring freedom and that is what makes The Zones the best. Battery City is worthless.”  
“I hear you,” Party says. “I escaped myself with Kobra, my brother. We weren’t in training though, but it was still a hellfire trying to escape.”  
“Never seen the city and when I do I want to bring it down.” Ghoul spoke, looking like he was spaced out. Jet agreed with him.  
I spoke now. “Well, I shared my past, what are all of yours?”  
Jet went first. “I grew in this Zone, Zone 6. My family was poor but my mom knew a lot about medical procedures. I learned from her and now I’m a medic. Before you came along I was the newest member.”  
“Explains why you helped me so much with my hip.” I laugh.  
“My turn, my turn.” Ghoul raised his hand and smiled then laughed. God his laughter was contagious. “It was a bit after Gee-----I MEAN Party and Kobra started the new Killjoys, the second generation. I was Zone hopping and trying to survive. I saw Party and Cobra having trouble with the car. This was before it was painted. So I offered to help, I’m good at fixing things.--”  
“Nice pride moment Ghouly.” Party smiled and smacked his shoulder.  
“Shut up. Anyway that’s when they recruited me. You already heard Party’s and Kobra’s stories, so.”  
“I guess we all do have a past don’t we? We’ve all been through hell it sounds like, damn. And Ghoul, you said Gee? What are your real names, BLI could never find them out.”  
“Why should we trust an escapee? You could easily run back to them.” Party said.   
“I do not want to go back to the hellhole. I only would if my parents could come back.”  
“Okay, okay. Fair enough.” Party sighed. “I’m Gee.” The guys started to go around saying their names.  
“Frank.” “Mikey.” “Ray.”  
“Do you all prefer code names?”  
“When we’re around any place that is not the hideout. You don’t know who is watching or listening.”  
“You have a valid point. Frank, how did you get your scar? That thing looks crazy.”  
“Well first I have a question for you.”


	12. The Hellish Scar

“And what is your question?”  
“Do you know Korse? Or did you know?”  
“He’s the one who showed me around and helped me with my training, yes I know him.”  
‘He’s the one who gave this to me.”  
“Explain, Frank.”  
Ghoul put his arm around me and laughed again. “Well, okay. When I first joined we got into a battle with Korse. He held a switchblade to my throat and had me make a promise to him. He said if I were to kill Gee and Mikey I would live, so I said yes. But of course I wasn’t going to do that. They’re my brothers, I couldn’t do it. So instead of cutting my throat, he sliced my lip and cheek.” I cringed out of his grasp and shook, seeing that would make me vomit. Despite I’ve seen worse. He continued. “I let it try to heal naturally, but soon after that encounter Ray joined and he insisted on stitching it up. Which, well Ray do you want to tell Calli what happened?” Frank gave me a nickname, that made me smile, no one ever gave me one before. Ray groaned and chuckled. “Frank tore the stitches out. He gets hurt a lot by doing stupid shit and well I’m always the one fixing him up and he doesn’t like the healing process.”  
“I like my battle scars!”  
“Sure, whatever.”  
Frank pulled me a bit closer before shaking his head and taking his arm off of me, I didn’t know what his deal was. We laughed and told stories for awhile longer before we all went to sleep.


	13. Let's Fight, Kobra! I'll Kick Your Ass!

[HIGH NOON, NEXT DAY]

All The Killjoys woke up early that morning due to one of Frank’s explosions. He was testing out a new grenade he made. Mikey shot up and ran outside with his gun thinking they were under attack. Gee was next, them Ray, then me. We could all hear Frank laughing loud. It caused everyone else to laugh.  
“What the FUCK Ghoul??!” Kobra snapped and threw sand at him.  
“Calm down!” Frank yelled and went to go throw a punch at him. I couldn’t just stand here and watch them fight. “Ay! Kobra! Let’s fight? I bet I’ll kick your ass!” Kobra looked back at me, threw sand at Frank once again then denied me. “You had nothing to do with this. This idiot woke us all up.” Kobra neared him and went to throw a punch, Frank fell down onto the sand. “KOBRA!” I yelled, wanting to get his attention. I was actually interest into sparring with him, he seemed very trained and I was too, it would be a fun fight. Plus is would get his anger out in a better way then punching Frank’s face in. “Fine.” He complied and neared me.  
“Okay this isn’t a good idea.” Gee and Ray said in unison. “Calli you are going to get hurt.”  
“Are you calling me incapable?”  
“No,” Gee said. “I just don’t want either of you to get hurt. This happens all the time with Mikey anyway. He loses control.” Mikey sighed and rolled his eyes, irritated. “Mikey let’s just do this.” I say, walking to an open space and getting in a fighting position. “C’mon!” I start to taunt him. He pushes past the guys and comes towards me. “You asked for this, Calli.” He muttered and took his stance. “Rules?” He asked. “No blows to the face or neck?” I suggested. “Agreed.” He said then went for a kick to my side, the injured one. I dodge and retaliate. I go to punch his chest and I don’t land the punch. We go back and forth for a five minutes before he lands a punch on me. He punched me in my stomach and caused to fall onto the sand, a cloud forming around me. Mikey smiled at me then walked away, thinking he won. I stood up and jumped onto his back trying my best to push him down. It didn’t work with just me doing it, but Frank helped me and pulled him down. I saw Ray roll his eyes in the corner of my eye and Gee started to laugh. “Okay, okay you win Callista, this time.” Mikey said but his voice was muffled by the sand in his mouth. Frank and I get off of him and stand up and high five. “Nice one, Candy.” Frank patted me on the back. I help Mikey out and help stand him up. None of us were hurt luckily. But we were not looking to hurt each other, just sparr. “Alight Calli. Next form of business,” Gee said, wanting to change the subject. “C’mon we need to get you some new clothes.”


	14. Colors? Other Than White?

We all pile into the hideout and Party starts to look around for something that could work for me. He started to look through old dusty bins that looked like they had old clothes in them. They were dirty I might add. “Try this.” Gee threw a sky-colored jacket at me. “It’s turquoise, it could work.” That was such a weird name for a color, turquoise… Hm. I try on the jacket and it’s a bit big on me. “Hell yeah, it looks good! Don’t mind the business, we can fix all that later… Now for pants. . .” He went back to looking through the bin. “How ‘bout these?” He threw a pair of black stained jeans at me. I go behind my curtain part of the room and change behind the curtain. While I was in the middle of getting changed, Gee threw a bright pink shirt, the color was blinding. I took the jacket off and put the shirt on. I threw my old white clothes outside the curtain and I came out with my new clothes. “How many colors are there? I only knew white, gray, and black.”   
“Huny, you need to see a rainbow, holy shit.” Gee said. “You look really good.” I looked at all the guys and they all said I really did look like one of them. Being one of The Killjoys made me ecstatic, I forgot I could feel real emotions out here and no one would judge me for it, at least I don’t think they would. I caught Ghoul staring at me but I tried to put that aside, I just don’t get what was going on with him. Am I clueless?  
“You need a symbol, now that you’re one of us now.” Ray said. “I’ll draw one up!!” Gee said and started to carve one into a wall where all their symbols were. After fifteen minutes of waiting he came up with this. . . Inside a circle Gee drew a candy wrapper shape with the radioactive symbol in the middle of it, to represent acid.   
Ghoul came out of his trance of staring at me and said, “We need to go out and do something, I hate being cooped up here.” He stormed out and I became curious. “Okay, what is up with him?” “No idea. . .” Mikey said, but I think he did know.  
“Well,” Gee started. “You heard him, let’s go!”


	15. We Have To Help Her, Goddammit! She's Crying!

We all gathered in the TransAM and took off without a destination. “Hey! Can we play Ghoul’s favorite music? What was it called again? Mad something. . .” “Gear and Missile Kid!” Ghoul finished my sentence. “Good choice, couldn’t have picked it better myself.”  
“Oh shut up you would’ve played it anyway.” Mikey says.

It was such a long time in the car with the guys, but I felt free and for the first time, like myself. I’ve learned the lyrics to one Mad Gear song called Black Dragon Fighting Society. Out of the songs I heard that has to be my favorite, it’s so the opposite of Battery City. Anarchy, freedom, and most importantly, emotion. The radio kept cycling only three Mad Gear songs, I guess that was all Dr D. had access to. But after two more cycles, Dr. D’s voice came over us.   
“Okay Zone runners, we have a special present for you. Mad Gear and Missile Kid are present to perform a new tune, called “Gun.”!” Frank almost jumped up out of his seat in excitement. “They played half of this when I saw them last! A new song is finally here!” I was happy top. I’ve started to love Mad Gear and Missile Kid now. Hearing a new song made me happy. We listened along to the song and by the second chorus we were all singing it, well, more like screaming and yelling.

“Well, if I'm old enough to die for your mistakes  
Then let's go  
Can I bleed enough to fill up what the engine takes?  
I don't know  
But if you're watching up above  
They're teaching me to kill  
Who's teaching me to love?  
Now baby  
Isn't it crazy?”

“Shit man! That was fucking great!” I said, clapping. “Speak! Holy shit… wow. I need to see them again.” Gee ran his hands through his red fire, greasy, hair. “It was great meeting them too, they were so crazy thinking /we/ were talking to them.” Frank added. “Remember when they said they can't believe The Killjoys listened to them?” Ray said in response to the both of them.  
Everything was going good with us, the car, and the radio. Well, until we heard someone wailing. We saw a blonde figure curled up next to a mailbox. We drove quickly and I got out of the car along with Party. “Hey,” He put his hand on the mysterious girl’s shoulder. “Are you hurt?” She looked up slowly and sat down properly. She didn’t speak and kept crying. “Get her in the damn car, Gee!” Ghoul yelled. “She’s fucking crying, just come on.” He hit the side of the car and seemed pissed off.


	16. Pinkie? Where Are You From?

Gee picked up the girl and put her in the back. The car is only supposed to fit two people so with six people in it, it didn’t work well. “Let me sit somewhere else.” Frank said. Before the car started he opened the top of the car and sat in top, holding on to the sides. “Man, you’re going to fall off.” Mikey hit the top of the car and laughed. “Yeah, he will fall off if you continue doing what you’re doing.” I say defensively. “You’re going to scare her!” Gee tried to say calmly. “We can’t scare her, poor thing is already scared enough.” We all shut up after that and just sit in silence, then Ghoul broke it. “Hey! Play some fuckning music! I hate hearing the wind!” “Shut up!” Mikey hit the top of the car again then Ray got upset at him. “He’s going to fall off! Like Callista said!” We all sit in an awkward silence for the rest of the trip back to the hideout, which we all call home. Frank jumps off from on top of the car and walks inside, we all follow him. Party helps the new, still upset girl inside. We all sat around her.   
“What’s your name?” Ray asked. “P-Pinkie.” She muttered quietly with her arms crossed around her. “Where did you come from, Pinkie?” She started off crying again, none of us could calm her down even if we tried. We didn’t have to know where she came from, but we wanted to know. Really bad. And there’s no way in hell Gee would just let her back out into the desert to get herself killed. He had too big of a heart to do that. Maybe that’s why Ghoul was pissed, before anyone knows it The Killjoy group could be seventy people. “Can you tell us how old you are?”   
Pinkie took a few minutes to stop crying then spoke. “23.” Damn, she looked a lot younger than 23, more like 17 or 18. Gee put a hand to her shoulder, to hopefully, just maybe calm her down. It helped just the tiniest bit. “You’re going to stay here for awhile, okay? You need to recover from whatever.” Gee patted her shoulder again and stood up. “Let’s go back out driving, she’ll be okay here.”


	17. The Heart Full Of Danger

[TIME SKIP, TWO WEEKS]

Well, Pinkie still hasn’t talked a lot, but she has more than when we first started. We are still trying to get to the bottom of where she came from. It must’ve been worse than me… No what could be worse than my situation? Sure I was having a bit of a egotistical moment but seriously, what could be worse than what happened in my life? No matter that now, we are all focused on Pinkie, well, everyone besides Frank. He’s been pissed off for the past two weeks. It’s like he doesn’t like Pinkie around.  
He’s outside by himself so I walk out to join him in silence. He looks to me and smiles before looking down at the sand.   
“What’s your deal with Pinkie? I won’t tell Gee, he seems to be the one who’s infatuated with her.”  
“I’m upset because I don’t want this group becoming a big mess of people. Look at the wannabe groups around here, there’s twenty fucking people! We were just fine with four, excuse me. Five.”  
“Why am I so special?”  
“Because you were the first girl, that’s pretty big for us. Plus Dr. D was telling us to get a girl in the group, to honor Hot Chimp.”  
I change the subject, knowing he doesn’t want to talk about Pinkie anymore. “Who were the original four Killjoys?”  
“Dr. D, DJ Hot Chimp, Tommy Chow Mein, and Agent Cherri Cola. They’re the only reason we have The Zones now.”  
“I see, I never learned about them, in Bat City we were so focused on you guys.”  
“Calli? How was it in the city? Ray and I are the only ones who haven’t been in there.”  
“That’s a story for another time, Frank. It’s sunset, we better get the group out and try to talk to Pinkie.” Frank grunted and went to start a fire and grab six cans of Power Pup, the issued food in Better Living to The Zones. Only the lowest quality for us, the Zone Rats.

. . .

We’re all sitting around the fire now, laughing and talking about the day. Pinkie sat with her arms crossed around her, staying secluded. She looked like she was spaced out big time. Ghoul snaps his fingers in front of her and she comes back. “Huh?” “Tell us Pinkie. We need to know if you’re going to stay here.”   
“Ghoul!” Party came to her defense.   
“Party!” He yelled back louder. “Whatever, we do need to know.”  
“Fine fine fine FINE!” Pinkie slammed her hands down onto the sand causing clouds to form. “I’ve been wandering for months, my mom she… she... she died. I saw her. I’m alone.” “Hey! She speaks!” Frank clapped sarcastically and Party gave him /the stare./ “Oh Pinkie, I am so sorry. You’ll be safe here, from BLI. Okay? You just need a name.” That seemed to lift her spirits a little bit, she still had a tear stained face that the fire lit up. We all sat there thinking until Party started to mutter. “Heart… Heart something. Danger, something? God I hate this, fuck.” “Try reversing those,” Ray said. “Danger Heart?”


	18. But I Don't Want Her Here!

“Danger Heart? Really?” Frank said as we all walked back into the hideout, leaving Ray and Pinkie out by the fire talking. “Does she have to stay here? We found her crying in the sand!”  
“We found Calli hurt in the sand, what’s the difference?!” Party defended Pinkie once again.  
“Calli is the first girl in the group! She would take Hot Chimp’s place! Listen, here’s my reason. I don’t want this group to keep growing.” Frank crossed his arms and leaned against the flimsy wall of the hideout. “We help people I get that but we don’t bring them into our group like crazy. That makes no sense.”  
“Ghoul, I need you to listen closely to my words.” Gee stepped closer to him. “Stop. Fucking. Whining.”  
“I’m not whining! I’m stating opinion.”  
“Frank, you are whining. Pinkie really needs our help can’t you see that?” I spoke up and said, trying to defend her. “Whatever.” He says and walk to his corner of the hideout. “I’m going to sleep, night.” “We should get back out to Pinkie.” Gee says and with that we all walk back outside to talk to her. She was actually laughing for the first time. Pinkie was in a lot better mood now, I wonder if Ghoul has anything to do with it.   
“I was telling Pinkie, Danger Heart, about how Gee and Mikey found Frank she found it pretty funny.” Ray said, laughing himself. Pinkie started to laugh louder. “He fixed the car?” She said. Frank was listening from inside. That much was obvious because he yelled loudly, “It’s not that funny!!!!” “Shut uP!” Gee called back to him, which caused everyone to break into a laugh, even Mikey. He seemed to rarely ever smile or laugh, I wonder why. Has he seen so much shit that he physically can’t? I need to ask him when him and I have our late night talks. Those are nice because we’re the only ones up, no one bothers us. We’ve talked about some deep stuff. The city, the rest of The Killjoys, ect. “Shit, Dracs!!!!” Ray called out and pulled out his ray gun. Gee pulled Pinkie behind him to keep her safe. I only had my all white ray gun from BLI still. It was an eyesore. No color. But it still did the job. Kobra ran up to one of the four Draculoids and kicked him in the gut. He fell to the ground and Kobra shot him in the head the ripped his mask off. Under it was a pale man with yellow blonde hair, a gunshot wound between his eyes. Easily, the four of us took down the rest of the Dracs before there were any serious issues. “We need to get Pinkie a gun.” I say, that’s something we do have to do. “We should go to a vending machine in the morning and have Kobra hack it.” I almost said Mikey but I had to remember that around Pinkie I had to use codenames.   
“But first, sleep.” Mikey said.  
“Agreed.” The three, well four including Pinkie, said in unison.


	19. Dr. Ruzzles 'Posion Red' Hair Dye

“Pinkie, here’s your gun.” Ghoul tossed the gun to her from across the room. “Make sure to turn the safety off when you shoot.”  
“It’s so… Bare.” She spoke.  
“Welcome to the BLI run world.” I interject. It was the truth.  
“Dude!” Party also jumped in. “I don’t think you need to tell her there’s a safety lock.” This was the fifth fight between Frank and Gee just today and it wasn’t even high noon yet. I swear there needs to be some rule put into place when they fight. I would get a kick out of them just fighting physically. No guns, just hand to hand. Ray was sitting against a wall eating some Power Pup BLI food. Mikey was sipping on a soda and Gee was about ready to go to Tommy Chow Mein’s store to find some “supplies” but we all knew he meant hair dye.  
“Alright, I’m leaving. I’ll be back in a few.” Gee said, walking out to the TransAM.  
“Can I come with you?” Pinkie asked sweetly.  
“Sure, come on now.” He patted her on the shoulder and they walked out.

[Gerard POV]  
“C’mon Pinkie!” I wait out in the car, propping my feet up onto the steering wheel. Quickly, the light blonde hair woman walks out, well, more like runs out and jumps into the passenger seat of the car. “Okay I’m ready.” She said nodding towards me. I swiftly drove off, kicking sand up behind the back wheels.   
“Where are we going anyway, Party?”   
“Tommy Chow Mein’s. He sells supplies and goods to us at an ok amount of carbons.”

[TIME SKIP, 13 MINUTES]

“Okay Pin- Danger Heart… I need you to stay in the car. Use your gun if absolutely anything happens, okay? Well, only shoot Draculoids. No one else. I’ll be back.” I walk off before I continued rambling. I open the door to the shop and greet Tommy who is half asleep behind the counter.  
“Ay! Party Poison! What can I do for you today? Let me guess-”  
“Dr. Ruzzles? Battery? Got those two things?”  
“Only one of the those.”  
“Please say battery. I’m running low and my hearing aid is starting to run out. Please Tommy.”  
“I have Dr. Ruzzles Poison Red though~!”  
“God dammit Tommy! I need that battery! I can’t hear anyone in this damned ear! And I’m not telling anyone! I need to look strong and with this horrible thing I can’t! Ugh why did Ghoul have to do that shit to me.”  
“Alright stop your rambling now. I’ll get it when I can, my suppliers haven’t been in the city yet. Calm down I’ll get it soon. Come back in three days okay?”  
“I can’t wait-” I sighed loudly, showing my anger. “Fine. Just give me the hair dye my hair is a fucking mess. And give me some Dried BLI Food. We’re running low, we have two girls in the group now.” Tommy didn’t question the girls part because frankly he probably didn’t care. All he cared about was jacking up prices for me to spend carbons I don’t have. He grabbed the things I needed with his calloused hands and placed them on the counter.   
“62 carbons.”  
“That’s 20 more than last time! What the hell?!”  
“You kept whining. That’s a fee in itself.” I cough and play 42 carbons down on the counter and take my items before Tommy can hunt me.

I walk out to the car and Pinkie is sitting there with her gun clutched tightly to her. “Are you ready Party?” She asked, smiling her bright smile towards me. She was pretty adorable.  
“Yeah I’m ready, I got food so no one complains.” I alright and jump over the car door and land in the driver's seat.

[TIME SKIP, BACK TO HIDEOUT]

“I’m back~! Did you miss me Ghouly?!” I laugh, trying to taunt him. Needless to say it worked.  
“Fuck you Gee… FUCK!” He said my name, around Pinkie.  
“Well she knows now, the cat is out of the bag.” Mikey said quietly.  
“Real names?” Pinkie said. “I had a feeling there was more to codenames, it didn’t make sense.”  
“Well, yeah. Anyway, I’m Gee.”  
“Frank, or fuck you in Italian.”  
“I’m Ray.”  
And Mikey ever so silently in the corner said with a raised hand, “Mikey.”  
“GEE I SWEAR TO DESTROYA! Did you buy hair dye?! Again?!” Frank said. “You just dyed it a month ago!”  
“Exactly! A month ago! It’s too long. But I got food too.”  
“You make me so pissed off sometimes.” Ghoul said in response.  
“I always do don’t I? That’s my job out here in the Zones. ‘Torturing Ghouly.”  
“Fun Ghoul.” Frank said, as an insult of course. God damn those Italians.


	20. The Miracle Drug Addict

“PINKIE!” I yell, my face going down into the floor and my red hair losing its hold. “Pinkie… Are you there?” Pinkie looks up at me, dazed as all hell. I don’t know what was wrong with her, or at least I didn’t want to believe it. “Calli! Get over here!!” She runs over to the small area where Pinkie doesn’t look like herself. “What’s wrong with her?” Calli takes a good look at her, snapping her fingers in front of her. “Pinkie, Pinkie!”

[CALLISTA POV]  
I knew what was immediately wrong with her, I was forced to take these drugs, Miracle Pills. Inside of Better Living they are used to make you forget where you are, but the big thing is they trigger memory loss. I’ve lost most of my childhood because of those damned things, and I hate it. But I can’t change it.  
“Gee, they’re Miracle Pills.”  
“Yeah, I had a feeling but I didn’t want to believe it.” By now everyone was gathered around Pinkie and her spaced out figure. “She’s in the process of losing her memory.” Ray says. “I can tell by the way she isn’t responding.”  
“I agree.” I comply with him. “We just need to wait it out, but she won’t get physically hurt so no one needs to worry.” Frank mumbled something but no one really heard or understood what he said. Probably had something to do with how much he doesn’t care for Pinkie. 

…

A couple hours have passed and Pinkie has finally started to regain herself. BLI has it worked out to where you go through this mind lose period while you’re asleep.   
But we still have the question, how did Pinkie get these pills? And why is she taking them still? We wanted, no needed, to know that answer. We know a little about her past but is that what got her addicted to these pills?  
“Pinkie? Can you hear me?” Gee asked her, putting a hand to her shoulder and bringing her in for a hug. It took a minute, but she hugged him back tightly wrapping her arms about his chest. 

[GERARD POV]  
“What’s going on Pinkie?” I mumble into her hair.  
“Talk…” I heard her sniffle. “Outside.” I nod and pull away.   
“I’ll be right back.” I said to the group to which they raised an eyebrow to it. Her and I walk into the afternoon sun and we sit on the hood of the TransAM.  
“Alright, spill.”  
“My mom took the pills from the city, and when she died I took them to hopefully forget the awful memory of her. . . Of her.” She burst out into tears. “Of her passing.”  
“Pinkie. . .” I pull her into another hug and place my arms around her shoulders. “It’ll be okay, we’ll get through this, ok? We are all going to help you, but first give me the bottle.”  
“I can’t do that Gee.”  
“Please. I’ll get rid of them, you’re going to get over this. We’re all going on a big adventure starting in three days that no one knows about, I need you to be conscious for that.” Pinkie cleared the tears off her face and put her hair behind her. Something inside me told me she wouldn’t give me all the pills.


	21. What Calli and Pinkie Look Like!/Timeline of Battery City

Hey everyone! Just a quick note, Callista Wes is based off of the actress Haley Lu Richardson and Pinkie is based off the actress Juno Temple! Now, here's a timeline of Battery City! -cix 1970 Better Living Industries, a japanese company begins its expansion into the USA 1974 Dr. Death Defying is born 1980 World helium supplies begin to deplete significantly 1983 War breaks out over helium reserves 1984-85 Many countries begin to switch to gasoline powered flight(airplanes) and propeller based sea travel War continues despite this. Some places begin to socially fall apart due to war. 1987-88 Cities around the USA crumble into chaos. Much of the East and West coast of the USA are destroyed due to nuclear bombs explosions in DC and Seattle. 1989-92 BL/ind has gained more control and begins to build a city in California which they claim to be for employees and their families to live in so they can be nearby the factories and warehouses. 1993-95 Helium Wars have died down and BL/ind is still growing strong on building their city in California. Other parts of the world are focusing on rebuilding and some flee to California to maybe find homes in this new city. 1996-97 Wars have started up again. Since about half of the United States has been overrun with fallout and radiation, people are fighting over territory. BL/ind are suspiciously staying out of it. 1998-2002 Dr Death joins the war in 99 Battery City has now announced their first apartment buildings (2000). They now let the first 1,500 citizens into the city 2003-05 A Nuclear missile test was released into the coastal areas of the Zones, killing off one of the Zones needed food supplies BL/ind announces Zones 1 - 6 with a presumably dangerous Zone 7 that shouldn't be explored. 2006-07 BL/ind offers refuge to some, those who won't/can't line in Battery City set up small settlements in the surrounding deserts Helium Wars have officially ended and little to none of the United States is left Late '06, early '07 surveillance camera's were released disguised as insects into the atmosphere as a way to "keep an eye" on the Zones. Advising Citizens not to kill insects, unless wanting to be issued with a fine (Half million carbons, and up to thirty years in prison) and breaking government property. 2009 BL/ind and Battery City become the only known governing body and settlement (besides small deserts towns) Known in the ruins of the USA, already well established with a law system and a police force known as "Draculoids" Late 2009 was when "The Killjoys" (Soon to be) began to come fascinated in the (Original) "Killjoys" and wanted to learn everything about them (as kind of mentors) 2010 Political wars breaks out between Battery City and other surviving cities that it does trade with. Marks as the beginning of what is known as the second "Helium War" (This war wasn't over Helium, unsure why it's called this) Killjoys become more of an active rebellion against BL/ind with increased military/police presence and aggression in the zones. Marks the Beginning of what is known as the "Analog Wars" Regulations tighten in Battery City under the guise of safety Battery City lets another 2,500 people in, trying to prove their innocence with helping people Due to safety of the citizens within Battery City, they released "Draculoids" into the zones to eventually spread out into the furthest zones. (Zone 5/6) 2012 Battery City becomes a "negative utopia" over several years, instill set morals into citizens, and makes pills mandatory. Few that realize what is going on escape to the desert, form small group of rebels later deemed as "Killjoys", people in settlements become known as "neutrals" for neutrals stance towards city. This group of rebels is consistent of Dr. Death, DJ Hot Chimp, Cherri Cola, and Tommy Chow Mein. (They brought hope to the surrounding zones) 2016 (Original) Killjoys decide to retire since Analog Wars are close to finish and there's nothing else since their leader, Dr D., took an injury to his legs and now is bound to an electric wheelchair. Show Pony is taken in by Dr. D after the passing of her mother. 2018 Battery City is near completion and it's slowly starting to turn into a dictatorship, but no one really realizes in yet. Better Living starts getting a larger grip on its citizens, introducing more "needed" products (e.g. Clubs, Protection Plans, Pills) 2019 Battery City is officially become a dictatorship. But the citizens are brainwashed and don't realize it. The neutrals who live out in the Zones have and want to stop it. Dr D shares with some close friends of his that they should should continue the Killjoy legacy. That's where Kobra Kid, Fun Ghoul, Jet Star, and their leader Party Poison came into play.


	22. BETTER LIVING PROFILES

KOBRA KID

Rebel Class A

Knows Kung Fu.

Age: 29

Race: White

Height: 5'11

Sex: Male

Weight: 126.5lb

Eyes: Brown

Vision: 20/20

Medications: Unbranded Zone Drugs

Status: Alive

Notes: Subject is malnourished and has a first degree laser burns on his right arm.

Location: Zones

Level: 0

Treatment Status: Not Available

Beginning of treatment: Not Available

End of treatment: Not Available

Estimated cost: 1,000,000c

Assigned Therapist: N/A

Assigned Nurse: N/A

Assigned Job: N/A

Strikes: 1

Offenses: 1

PARTY POSION

Rebel Class A

Leader of the anarchy driven Killjoys.

Age: 33

Race: White

Height: 5'9"

Sex: Male

Weight: 112.8lb

Eyes: Blue

Vision: 20/20

Medication: Unbranded Zone Drugs

Relationship: Brother

Status: Alive

Notes: Deaf in his left ear, from a explosion from one of Fun Ghouls experiments. Close relationships; could be used as a bargaining chip.

Location: Zones

Level: 0

Treatment Status: Not Available

Beginning of Treatment: Not Available

End of Treatment: Not Available

Estimated cost: 1,200,000c

Assigned Therapist: N/A

Assigned Nurse: N/A

Assigned Job: N/A

Strikes: 2

Offenses: 2

FUN GHOUL

Rebel Class A

Engineer, can fix anything to do with technology. Can hack almost any security system.

Age: 29

Race: White

Height: 5'6"

Sex: Male

Weight: 130.7lb

Eyes: Hazel

Vision: 20/20

Medication: Unbranded Zone Drugs

Status: Alive

Notes: Known for guilt-induced nightmares and yelling in sleep.

Location: Zones

Level: 0

Treatment Status: Not Available

Beginning of Treatment: Not Available

End of Treatment: Not Available

Estimated cost: 1,000,000c

Assigned Therapist: N/A

Assigned Nurse: N/A

Assigned Job: N/A

Strikes: 0

Offenses: 1

JET STAR

Rebel Class A

Grew up on a conserved part of Zone 6 where he would learn to do everything with strategy.

Age: 32

Race: White

Height: 6'1"

Sex: Male

Weight: 132.3 lb

Eyes: Brown

Vision: 20/20

Medication: Unbranded Zone Drugs

Status: Alive

Notes:

Location: Zones

Level: 0

Treatment Status: Not Available

Beginning of Treatment: Not Available

End of Treatment: Not Available

Estimated cost: 1,000,000c

Assigned Therapist: N/A

Assigned Nurse: N/A

Assigned Job: N/A

Strikes: 0

Offenses: 1

CALLISTA WES

Rebel Class A

Raised up by BL/ind since late childhood. Was in process of becoming a S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W. Somehow escaped the hands of our facilities.

Age: 26

Race: White

Height: 5'5

Sex: Female

Weight: 124.3 lb

Eyes: Green

Vision: 20/20

Medication: Was on BLI Branded Medication

Status: Alive

Notes: Grew up in the early construction of Battery City.

Location: Zones

Level: 5

Treatment Status: Discontinued

Beginning of Treatment: June 20, 2007

End of Treatment: Cut off mid process

Estimated cost: 1,100,000c

Assigned Therapist: 2008-19 Dr. Susan Hamilton

Assigned Nurse: 2007-09 Alson Meiser R.N; 2009-12 George Frazier R.N; 2012-19 Russell Sabin R.N

Assigned Job: Elite Force, S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W

Strikes: 2

Offenses: 4


	23. Frank? Do You Think This Was A Good Idea?

[TIME SKIP, 7 DAYS LATER]

[CALLISTA POV]  
I was currently asleep, in my own thoughts. Gee planned this big expedition that none of us knew about to take down Better Living security cameras around The Zones. Because of that we had to split up. I think that was his worst idea yet. We’ve been split up for four days now and we’re going okay, I think. The groups were:  
Gee and Pinkie  
Frank and I  
Mikey and Ray  
When we split up we decided to go in different directions away from the main hideout. And in two weeks time we would meet up again there to check in. Frank and I found these ruins out on the border of Zone 5 going into Zone 6. We’ve been staying there for the past few days and today we were going to start moving again. I woke up first. Frank was still asleep, his mouth open the slightest bit and he was snoring. I mentally debated waking him up but decided against it and let him sleep for a little while longer. We were sleeping on opposite sides of the small ruin. They weren’t even four solid walls to protect us. I look up into the sky and it’s still morning. I can tell by the placement of the sun. I walk outside the crumbled walls and sit in the sand looking out to the endless desert. My used to be bright blue jacket was now covered in sand, rocks, and dried blood. We’ve been in so many fights lately, like the Draculoids were closing in on us. Maybe that’s why Gee wanted to split up. The sad reality is that if some of us were to die we better die separated, maybe we would have a better chance of surviving. I was beginning to be stuck in my own thoughts again. Until Frank scared me.  
“Hey,” He of course sounded like he just woke up, his voice deep and rough. He made me jump. “Woah, no need to jump. I’m not a Drac, Jesus.” He sat next to me.  
“Frank, was this a good idea do you think?”  
“I dunno, maybe. Gee has a method to his madness most times.”  
“This just seemed so random compared to his other plans.”  
“That may be, but I still have faith in him. Do you Calli?  
“I guess I do, I don’t know honestly.”  
“Well you should, he is our leader.”  
“You’re right Frank.” I stood up.   
“We better get a move on, there’s so many hidden camera to take down right?” I say and help Frank stand up. His hands are calloused and bruised, with tattoos covering them. They are the complete opposite of soft. “I’ll go grab our guns.” I walk back into the place where we were sleeping and grab both of our guns. My was more sand and blood color now, I seriously need to add color to it. With paint or something, we just don’t have the carbons to spend on it.

[FRANK POV]  
She was so beautiful. The sun hit her face and hair just right. I shouldn’t fall for her but I can’t help it. I had to hide my feelings for her, I didn’t want to hurt our already good friendship. I looked around me to see if any Dracs or worse for coming for us and nothing was around us thank Destroya. Calli came back out with our guns. Her’s was so bare. I wonder if Gee could paint it for her. She handed me my gun and I thanked her. We started to walk away from the sun and kept a lookout for camera to destroy. If I could I would’ve brought some kind of technology to blow them up along with the fuses but I didn’t have time to build anything. So, we’ll just have to shoot them. I look to my right where Callista is walking right by my side. She is looking away from me, expecting that I would be looking away from her towards the desert, but I wasn’t I was looking at her.

[CALLISTA POV]  
I felt someone’s eyes on me. I look over to my left to see Frank looking at me.  
“Are you alright? Do I have something on me?” I start to run my fingers through my hair and touch my face. Frank seemed to be in a daze.  
“No, no. Sorry.” He looked away and distanced himself a little bit away from me. I didn’t understand his behavior. He acted so strange around me and I didn’t know why.  
“Acid Candy! I think that’s a camera!” Frank takes off running. I was getting used to him calling me by my normal name, but I guess we are out in the desert. We have to be kept a secret. I run after Frank to the conglomeration of desert brush. Frank starts to rip through it in hopes to find something. And yet he did. There was a shiny silver camera.   
“Let me get this one!!” I say as a take my gun out and shoot it. Frank then proceeds to kick the shit out of it.  
“Five down,” He says exasperated. “Many more to go.”  
“I wonder how many more of the camera the others have found.”  
“What if we’re in the lead?” Frank laughs.  
“That would be pretty fucking sweet.” I say. I didn’t swear much. I was used to using a ‘clean’’ language in BLI, but whenever I did curse Frank seemed to laugh.  
“Candy we better get something to eat I’m starving.”  
“I told you we should’ve bought more food. Let’s go find a market or something.”  
“Alright.” We walk off together as if the awkwardness from earlier never happened.


	24. The In Disguise Draculoid

It took a bit of walking, but Frank and I found a pop-up shop. Frank put his mask on. I didn’t have one so I obviously didn't do that. We walked inside and looked around. They didn’t have much but they had what we needed. Food. The guy behind the counter didn't look too friendly, so we didn’t talk to him at all.   
“I’m going to go outside, it’s stuffy in here, okay? You’ll be fine. Buy four or so cans.” Frank said and walked out and taking off his mask once he got there. I did as he asked and walked up to the counter.  
The clerk took a few seconds to talk, he was looking me over. “30 carbons.”  
“That’s it?! Wow.” Before I could talk anymore he pulled me over the counter and held me against him with a gun to my head.   
“FRANK!” I scream before he covers my mouth. I didn’t bother using a codename, I was too in panic. He came running in and pointed his gun towards the clerk. He held me as a human body shield. I look down at his shirt, he’s a BLI worker.  
“Calli, do you trust me?” He asked and it looked like he had his gun pointed at me. I nod as much as I can.  
“Okay close your eyes.” He says, closes one eye and aims. I close my eyes as he says and try to let the absence of color in my sight take over so I’m not shaking. 

[FRANK POV]  
Seeing Callista in this situation hurt me. I took my gun and aimed at the head of the man holding her captive. I shoot. The beam just passes Calli and shoots him in the head. He pulls down Callista with him, getting blood on her face. I then tear my mask off. She gets up and runs to me, shaking like a building in an earthquake. I’m not sure if she meant to run into me but nonetheless I wrapped my arms around her and shushed her.  
“He worked for BLI, he knew who I was.” She cried into my shoulder.  
“Not anymore. We need to get you mask Calli. That is exactly what can happen.” We stand hugging for a few moments longer.  
“Okay, let’s ransack this shithole.” She regains her balance but is still shaking. “Grab as much food as we can fit in our bag.” Our ‘bag’ wasn’t even a bag. It was torn pieces of material that were somehow held together, but it got the job done in small amounts. Calli grabbed five cans of food and I grabbed some small bottles of water.   
“We can try and fit this extra can.” She said. “If not it’s not big deal. This will just have to last us another week.”  
“How about we eat one can right now?” Before Callista could even begin to protest I took a can off her and smashed it against the ground like a primate would. I eat fast and only half of it and give the rest of the can to Calli. “Here.” She leans against a wall, slowly eating the rest.  
“How do you scarf this shit down? God.”  
“Calli what did you eat in the city?”  
“/Actual/ food. Not this PowerPup shit.”  
“Woah, two curse words in the same minute, I’m proud. I’m teaching you well.” I stand up and pat her head and chuckle. While she’s eating I put the food and water into the makeshift bag and put my monster face mask back on.   
“We better go, we don’t know what else could be out here.”  
“Wait Ghoul. Maybe there’s a camera.” She’s right. We take the next minutes searching for one or many. We found nothing.  
“He must’ve been planted here then..” Calli says.  
“Must have. Let’s get out of here. We can try and find another shelter around here and look for more cameras.” Callista follows me out carrying the bag. We wonder in what we think is the right direction of heading towards Zone 4.  
“Need help carrying that load?”  
“Please.” I take the bag off of her. Damn, it was heavy, She’s strong to be able to carry this the long trek that she did.

[TIME SKIP, 45 MINUTES]

“That’s another camera down.” Callista says after I shoot it. “Six.”  
“We /have/ to be ahead now.” I laugh and she does too.  
“Ghouly your laugh is very contagious. Do you know this?”  
“Woah. woah woah. Woah. Only G--Party has called me Ghouly. What’s with her taking it on?”  
“I hear him say it so much I guess.” She shrugged and I laughed more. “I’m okay with it.”  
After destroying that camera we kept walking towards a building we saw. We aren’t sure what it is but hoping it’s shelter. It’s only late noon but we still want to find somewhere before it gets dark. “Shelter! Let’s put our stuff down there, yeah?” Callista says before jogging toward it. Despite me carrying this bag over my shoulder I start to run. I grab her hand and run towards the four walls. It’s better looking than our last shelter. I put the bag down and Calli and I look at each other.   
“Ready to go find more cameras?”  
“Yeah.” I say enthusiastically and high five Callista. “Let’s hope to get three more by nightfall.”


	25. Don't Let Me Cry Tonight

[TIME SKIP, NIGHT TIME]

[CALLISTA POV]  
The attack from the shop is still causing me to shake. I was about to be killed, but Frank saved me. I know The Killjoys are supposed to be brave and I feel like I’m not. I should’ve handled that situation on my own, I could’ve done it. Now I’m beating myself up over it. Frank happened to make a fire in the pitch darkness. The flames illuminated the area where we were sitting.  
“Well we got two more cameras, I wish we could’ve found one or two more.” Frank said, moving closer to me and patting me on the shoulder. “You’re still shaking.”  
“I can’t help it. I know we’re not supposed to be afraid, but I swear to Destroya my life was about to end.”  
“Fear is a natural thing, Calli.” He whispered my name, as if someone were listening. “We all get scared, hell I do sometimes.”  
“You? Getting scared?”  
“Yeah! It’s scary sometimes out here, I just try to hide my fear, I hate showing it. Here, need help calming down?”  
“What do you mean help?”  
“Come here.” I scooted closer to Frank. I didn’t like this, it felt awkward and just odd. I knew he could feel it too.

[FRANK POV]  
Why did this feel weird? I thought it would feel okay, even maybe nice. But it didn’t. Was she not comfortable? Before things were to continue I look down into the sand and mumble a “Sorry.”  
“What’d you say?” She said, moving away from me.  
“Oh, nothing. Must’ve heard the fire crackling.

…

[CALLISTA POV]  
We set up camp and I go ahead and lay down.  
“I’m going to sit by the fire for a little longer.” Frank said, something was on his mind.  
“Okay, be back in five or I’ll come out there.”  
“Got it.” He walked out, I heard his feet hit the sand. I laid down on my side and still shook, I couldn’t get over it. I was thinking through it and gained a wrench in my stomach. I started to cry now. Trying to cry softly so Frank didn’t hear me and worry. “You’re not strong” I kept telling myself. “You can’t be a Killjoy. You belong in the city.” Three minutes into my crying, Frank came in. I tried to fake sleeping and stop my tears so he wouldn’t know. But goddammit I sniffled. He heard that and called my name.   
“Callista? What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Why are you crying?” He was filled with questions about my wellbeing. “Hey.” I heard him shuffling and then I felt a hand come across my stomach. “Please stop crying.” It sent shivers down my spine, those words Frank whispered. Now /this/ isn't awkward. I don’t know why, but it wasn’t. I was comfortable. I let a few more tears out then turned to face him.

[FRANK POV]  
Callista turned to me, I kept my arm around her stomach. Her tear stained face stared at my concerned one. “I’m not going to let you cry tonight, not ever.” I whisper once more, I hate seeing her hurt. Such a beautiful being shouldn’t feel hurt. Fuck. Frank why? Why do you do this to yourself? WHY? You’re falling for her and you can’t help yourself. She probably doesn’t even care and is just playing along. God. Dammit.

[CALLISTA POV]  
I dig my head into Frank’s chest and close my eyes. I feel his other hand run through my hair. He started to softly sing. He was making me melt inside, I never knew he had this sweet side to him. I slowly drift off to a peaceful sleep, in his arms.

…

I am awakened by little noises, sounding like whimpering. Frank still has his arms tight around me so it’s hard to move a lot. But the whimpering is coming from him. Was he dreaming? Or has he always done this and I’ve just never known it? That could be, we’ve never have lied together before. I reach my hand up to move a piece of his hair out of his face. The noises continue, but it was nothing to wake him up over. I snuggle back into his warm arms and fall asleep again, it was calm. I felt like nothing else existed ever. No Better Living, no Draculoids, no Scarecrows, no anything. Just the endless desert and us. I even forgot about the other Killjoys for a minute and where they might be.


	26. The Tale of Route Guano and The Mailbox

[GERARD POV]  
We’re twelve days into this adventure. Pinkie and I are doing okay, she’s had a few breakdowns, I think they’re withdraws from the pills she took. I found the bottle before we left and I buried it deep in the sand half a mile out from the hideout. She was asleep right now, it was the afternoon. We had a late night last night, Pinkie had a grieving spell and I was there to comfort her. We’re getting close, and I don’t mind it. Sure she has her insecurities but that won’t stop me for being there for her. I shake her gently.  
“Hey, we need to go find cameras, c’mon.” She rolls over and looks at me, smiling.   
“Is it morning?”  
“No, it’s afternoon. I’ve been up since late morning.”  
“Oh.” She sat up and rubbed her eyes, they had a tinge of red.  
“Are you okay? Your eyes are red. From crying?”  
“I don't think so. I got sand in my eyes. It burns.” I frown in response, that shit does hurt. Unfortunately it happens very, very often. I lend my hand out to Pinkie and she takes it. I help her stand up. I hear walking outside where we were. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. Stay here.” I grab my gun and run out. Dracs. A lot of them. Pinkie hears me firing my gun and comes out by my side. She tries to shoot them but misses almost every shot. She managed to shoot one of them in the leg which disabled him. I finished him off. Seven more Dracs to go.   
“Pinkie, get behind me!!”  
“I can shoot them Party! I can do it!” I was afraid she couldn’t. Though. Based off the little I’ve seen her shoot she has no business fighting in with a Drac attack. She needed training, and I wanted to help her with that. I kick one of the Dracs and take his gun. Using both guns in my hands I shoot two Dracs at once and they go down. Five more. Pinkie runs towards one and I scream her name. She wraps her hands around their neck from behind and kicks him. It works and he falls to the ground and she shot him in the chest. That makes four more. I easily take them down.  
“Pinkie, that was great!” I wrap my arm around her and laugh at the damage we did.  
“Why were there so many?”  
“We’re near Route Guano, it’s heavily guarded most days, that’s probably why.”  
“Do you think someone could be near us? Maybe Ray or someone?”  
“Highly doubt it, it would be cool though to see them. I miss all of them.”  
“I do, too, Gee.”  
“Party.”  
“Right, sorry.” She laughed and started to walk away.  
“Pinkie, you’re forgetting our stuff? I’ll grab it.” I chuckle to myself and grab our supplies. We already were carrying our guns, so I had to grab our sack of food and water. And most importantly, hair dye. We walk a little ways to the road, Route Guano.  
“Here it is, the most important road of all, we found Calli in the closer Zones to the city on this road. You’ll have to ask her about it.” I said with my hands out wide, like I’m presenting the road to Pinkie.  
“What’s that over there?” She points to a colorful mailbox. “Camera? Can we go check it out Party?”  
“It shouldn’t be a camera, have you heard of the Phoenix Witch?”  
“Nope, but I think I’ve heard Ghoul go on about her.”  
“He does, a lot. Anyway she takes the dead citizens of the Zones to her lair. People can leave letters in this mailbox and she’ll take them to the deceased.”  
“Woah.” Pinkie just looked like someone hit her with a rock. Suddenly, we hear crying from behind the mailbox.

…

There’s a child holding a letter close to their heart, sobbing. I kneel down and put my hand to their arm. “What’s wrong, kid?” I speak calmly. The child speaks. Their voice is higher pitch so I assume the child is a female.   
“This letter. . .” She spoke. “I need to give it to my mom, but not to the Phoenix Witch. I want to take it to her but I know I can’t.”  
I see the problem now, and I feel bad for the child. “Do you know who I am?” The kid focuses on me and her eyes light up.   
“Are you… Are you a Killjoy??”  
“Indeed I am child, and this is Danger Heart. The newest Killjoy.”  
“I’ve heard of you!” She pointe happily to Pinkie, her emotion seeming to change in a snap. “Dr. D. has talked about you! You’re the only girl along with Acid Candy!”  
“You’re right!” Pinkie came down into the sand with me and shook the girl’s hand. “What is your name? Don’t worry, you can tell us. No one else will ever know.”  
“I’m.. I’m Grace.”  
“Well, Grace.” I felt something about her, it was special. She was running for a reason. She had a secret. I could just feel it. “You’re coming with us.”


	27. Eat. More. PowerPup. Now.

[MIKEY POV]  
Why couldn’t I be with Gee during this trip? Of course he had to be with Pinkie. When we would group up it would always be him and I. I don’t hate Pinkie, not by any stretch I just hate the time he’s giving her. Yes, fine. I’m a jealous brother. I admit it. I haven’t slept at all the previous nights, I barely sleep anyway. I just can’t most times. Ray gets upset at me for it, thinking I do it because I want to. I don’t, my mind just runs and I can’t sleep. Ghoul has a similar issue. But his are night terrors. When it was just us four he would scream in his sleep and wake us all up in worry.   
It’s thirteen days into the adventure. One more day. Ray and I made it to the diner and camped out there for the past day.   
“Eat.” Ray said, I had the unopened can of Power Pup in front of me. “Or I’ll throw this can at your head.” I groan and flip him off. I pry the can open and start eating. It’s so disgusting. I make a face and Ray starts laughing at me.  
“It’s not my fault it tastes like pet shit.”  
“Well.” Ray said trying not to laugh. I leaned over to slap the side of his head.   
“How the hell would it be my fault?!”  
“Damn Mikey! Chill! It’s not your fault! I was joking! Just eat it.” I groan and then start slowly eating the contents of the can. I hate this. . . a lot. 

[TIME SKIP, 20 MINUTES]

“Got everything?” I ask Ray. “Wonder if we will be the first ones back.”  
“Yeah, we have everything. Let’s get out of here.”  
“Following you.” I lend my hand out and Ray walks out. We walked out in the hot desert. It was mid day and frankly I hope I would die of heat exhaustion. Being a Killjoy means a lot and all, this heat is just crazy. You’d think we get used to it but there are those days where we could burn alive. I wonder if the city can somehow control the weather out here.   
After walking for a long time and me sweating through my yellow helmet and red leather jacket, we made it. The place we called home. I tried to open the door and it was stuck, so I kicked it open. Home sweet home. The first thing I do is grab a soda and toss another one to Ray.  
“Well, we’re the first ones back, ha.” Ray chuckles to himself and sits down on the couch.   
“When the others get back we should scare them.” I say. “We should also place a bet. Mine is for Frank and Calli to get back first.”  
“I’m not setting a bet because I agree with you.”  
“Time will tell, less than a day now. How many cameras did we get again?”  
“Eight- ish?” Ray questioned himself. “I thought you were supposed to keep count.”  
“Fuck.” I shrug and laugh, I forgot. I expected to leave it up to Ray.


	28. I Could've Put A Beam Through Your Goddamn Face!

[CALISTA POV]  
I huff. “Almost there, I see it.”  
“I wonder if anyone is there already.” Frank sighs and looks at me, taking some hair out of his face, moving it behind his ear. “I wonder how they all did.”  
“If not then later tonight. I hope we got the most.” There was no “prize” for getting the most cameras. Just bragging rights. Which isn’t that bad, hmph. \  
It was in the early evening, the sun was just about to set and part of the sky was dark. It was hard to see, but we didn’t have any flares with us to light, we didn’t take any. We were incredibly ill prepared for this trip. Good job Gee. Not. Next time, we need to take time for supply gathering. Not just “Hey! Let’s go out with nothing but food and risk our lives!” That was a bone I needed to pick with him. Nonetheless, we gained closer to the hideout.

[MIKEY POV]  
I heard the shuffling in the sand outside. “Jet, you hear that?”  
“Huh?” He stayed quiet for a second. “Oh, yeah. Think it’s Dracs?” I get up and look out the tattered curtain. “It’s Callista and Frank.” I whisper. “I’m going to scare them.”  
“You’re going to get shot.” I shrugged and gave Ray a half smile. We had a Drac mask in the corner of a room. I put that on and grab a dirty white jacket and throw it on. 

[CALLISTA POV]  
“I’m going through the back, I’m going to grab something to drink.” Frank said. “You want something?”  
“Yeah I’ll take one.” Frank circles around and I go to turn around to walk in. A pair of arms touch my shoulders and I scream. I hear a growl noise and I grab my gun. I turn in the person’s grasp and aim.  
“Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!” The masked figure screamed. He laughed and threw the mask and jacket off. It revealed to be Mikey.  
“God dammit Mikey! I could have shot your face off!” I laugh and hit him. I was pissed off but it was covered up by laughing.   
“What the fuck is happening?!” Frank yelled from behind the hideout.   
“Mikey is trying to kill me!” I laugh and walk in. “Gee and Pinkie back yet?”  
“Nope. Hopefully coming back soon.” Ray greeted me with a high five. Frank walked back in, laughing a lot. Everyone smiled when he laughed, his smile was like a sickness, contagious.   
“How many cameras did you kill?” I ask Mikey.  
“Eight-ish.” He for some reason mimicked Ray’s voice, I don’t know what that was all about. “You?”  
“Seven, god dammit!” I slam my hand down on a table, almost breaking it. “I was hoping we would win.” Frank pushed my shoulder playfully. It fell quiet for the slightest amount of time, then we all heard a familiar voice outside. Gee’s. Then we heard Pinkie and then some laughter. They came inside, Gee was hiding something behind him.  
“Did you miss us?” He laughs.  
“Not a chance. What’s behind your back?” Frank crossed his arms and looked at him.  
Gee moved out of the way to reveal a child.  
“What the actual fuck Gee?” Ghoul huffed, he seemed pissed already.  
“Language!!” He yelled and patted the child on the shoulder before kneeling down to be eye level with them.  
“This is Grace and she’s staying. And yes, Ghoul, I promise this is the last member for a long time. I feel something special about her.”


	29. BOOM!

[TIME SKIP, 3 DAYS]  
[FRANK POV]  
“C’mon, Grace! It’s ready!” I yell at her from outside. She was inside with everyone else, doing I don’t know what. She came running out.  
“What is this supposed to do again?”  
“Okay, this button is hooked up to that explosive over there in the sand. There’s a small MouseKat model head on that explosive. When you push this button that’s going to burn and explode the living shit out of the head. Ready?” I chuckle to myself, noticing I cursed. If Gee was out here, boy would I be in deep shit, again. I got in trouble for cursing around a young child, but she’s gonna learn no matter what, right?  
“I’m ready.” She smiled big, showing her teeth and made grabby hands for the button. I hand it carefully down to her. “Blow it.” I say, kneeling down to her level. She ignites it and we watch hopefully. A mere few seconds passed and the explosion set off, sending the MouseKat head into the air. It landed and started to burn. It was a loud noise and Gee and Callista came running out. Calli looked worried, Gee looked upset.  
“Do you want to bring attention???” He put his hands on his hips and rolled his eyes.  
“It’s a prototype! It’s helping build something bigger and Grace wanted to help with it.”  
“It sounded like you blew yourself up, god.” Callista laughed and walked back inside, unphased. Gee stayed outside.  
“What’s burning Frank?”  
“Oh you know, the miniature MouseKat head we kept on a shelf.” Gee blew up, just like my explosion did. His eye started to twitch and I knew shit was about to go down.  
“Show Pony gave that to me, idiot! I wanted to keep that. Next time I’ll know to destroy something of yours.”  
“Ooo~ Party is threatening me!” I laugh and go over to the burning MouseKat head. Grace can’t stop giggling, us fighting was funny to her apparently. I stomp on the burning head and bring it back over to Gee.   
“Here. It’s scorched still but you can still tell it’s MouseKat.” Despite my foolish tone, I still felt bad for destroying it, I didn’t know it had any meaning to anyone. Jesus, we have a hundred of those things lying around. Gee took it from my hands and stormed off.  
“Well, Grace, I got to work on a new weapon, wanna help?”  
“It’s starting to get hot, I’m going to go back inside.”  
“Oh, alright. Okay, hope I don’t blow myself up!” I laugh as she turned to walk back into the hideout. She turned back and gave me a worried look. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding, I’ll be safe.”   
I walk to the side of the hideout where my project is. I’ve been working on what I like to call it a rocket launcher. Essentially it takes a missile, also made by yours truly, and fires it to the desired target. Like something I’ve seen in those movies. It’s rare we see movies, but when we do I’m fascinated by them. It’s insane what people can come up with. I try to make it into reality. This launcher was almost finished. I had to test fire it somehow and it would have to be for a good use because we don’t have many missiles. Maybe I could convince everyone to take a drive and get ourselves in trouble to test it. Risky, but fun.

[CALLISTA POV]  
“I swear to Destroya Frank is going to ghost himself one of these damn days.” Gee cleared his throat, I cursed around Grace. “Sorry. What are you messing with, Grace?”  
“I brought it with me, it’s a radio.” I scoot over to sit by her and look at the brown radio with the word “BOOM!” on it.   
“Does it work?”  
“It broke recently, I need Frank to fix it.”  
“That’s a good idea, if anyone can fix it it’s him. How’d you get it?” Grace looked down to the radio, fiddling with it and not answering my question, probably too personal for her. “It’s okay, you don’t have to answer.” I give her a one armed hug and stand up. “I’m going to see what Frank is doing, he’s being awfully quiet out there.” I walk out to where he is and on my way, grab a soda.   
“What’s that thing? Looks beastly.”  
“A rocket launcher.” He talks quietly, obviously focusing intently. His tongue was peeking out of his mouth, which indicated even more that he was focusing. We stayed in silence for a minute.  
“Want me to leave you alone?”  
“Huh?” He asked rudely.   
“Mmm, ok.” I shake my head, smile, and walk back inside. “Ghouly is not one to be bothered with right now.” I laugh. “He snapped at me. Pinkie? Wanna go out for a walk? Let’s get out of here.” Pinkie perks up from her daze and smiles. She gets up and walks towards me.   
“Let’s go.” I grab her hand and we walk outside into the blazing sun.


	30. We Blew Their Faces Off!

“It’s done! It’s done! Thank Destroya!” Frank called from outside, I laugh along with everyone else inside. Frank comes trotting in carrying this huge weapon. “It’s finished!” The weapon was tan and dark green.   
“This is why you were ignoring me yesterday?” I laugh and move my hair over my shoulder. Frank smiled and looked down. Was he blushing? I don’t know, I couldn't tell. His black hair was covering his face. He looked back up after around ten seconds passed by.  
“This is a rocket launcher. Remember Mikey? We saw it in a movie?”  
“Yeah, I remember. You actually made it a reality?”  
“Yep! I did! And I want to test this bad boy out. Can we go find some Dracs to kill?” Gee stood up instantly, laughing. He leaned down to cover Grace’s ears.  
He said, “Let’s go blow those motherfuckers up.” Grace laughed, obviously hearing him despite her muffled ears. We all laugh with her.  
[TIME SKIP, 17 MINUTES]  
“C’mon, Frank, blow them up! We don’t have all day to chase them! The road runs out soon and we’ll lose!”  
“Oh we don’t lose,” Gee said. “We either win or die. No losing.” He said while driving like an insane person.

[FRANK POV]  
“Grace! Showtime!” We both stand up and Jet helps her up to see out of the car sun window. I get the rocket launcher aimed. My hands are sweaty, along with everything else on my body. Grace looked afraid, this was her first time in the car with Gee driving like a maniac. And I was too, but for a different reason. I wasn’t sure if this was going to work. I could blow us all up easily. There was a van of Dracs following us. Grace held the underside of the rocket launcher and I held the sides and trigger.   
“FOR COLOR, FREEDOM, AND-”  
“FOR FUCKS SAKE GHOUL SHOOT THE DAMN THING.” Mikey screamed at me.  
“LANGUAGE!” Gee yelled even in this time of distress.  
I sigh and smile. “FUCK YOU BLI!” I press the trigger and a missile launched out of it. It hit the windshield of the van and it exploded into flames. I cheer and get all happy to see that it worked. It actually worked! My tech worked! I high five Grace and we sit down in the car with Grace on Calli’s lap.  
“That was- Wow! You did it, you blew their faces off!” Callista said and put her arm on my shoulder briefly. That made me even /more/ happy if you get what I’m trying to convey.   
“Congrats Ghoul!” Jet and Gee said together.  
“That. Was. AWESOME!” Grace screamed in excitement. She was happy yo be here and that made me giddy. I didn’t mind Grace being here, it was just Pinkie. I don’t know what it was about her I just didn’t get a good feeling from her. Like a vibe. I don’t think it was a good idea to bring her in to the group, but Gee is so obviously head over heels for her. That made me sick to an extreme and I don’t why. I shouldn’t feel that way but I do and I can’t explain it further. We continue driving and make it to the infamous diner.


	31. Gee, I Swear To Destroya!

[CALLISTA POV]  
Gee has something up his sleeve. I don’t know what, but something. He better talk to us soon or I’m going to blow up. He’s been in his thinking mode all night last night and today. It was driving Mikey and I nuts. Mikey was his brother and he wasn’t even telling him. That shows it’s something big. Mikey would never tell a secret. Most of us were sitting outside, throwing cans around and laughing at each other. I wasn’t doing anything, though. No, I was staring Gee down trying to get him to crack.  
“Calli, what is it?” He sighed and started at me back with his /stare./ “Am I too pretty for you?” He joked and laughed. Frank rolled his eyes.  
“Spill it.”  
“Spill what?” He rose a brow.  
“Whatever the /fuck/ you have planned.” That was it. I was pissed. Gee coughed, as in a way to tell me to watch what I was saying, but I think he has given up on that. There’s no need to tell us not to do it, because we’ll just do it again. We don’t care. It’s our freedom and I swear if he tells me to watch my language one more time I’ll tell him he’s sounds like something Better Living would do. That’ll make him stop entirely.   
“Fine, fine. We need to go to Dr. D’s though.”  
“What’s the reason for that?” Pinkie chimed in.  
“He needs to broadcast it.”  
“Gee I swear to Destroya what do you have planned??”  
“You’ll learn soon enough.” He stood up, walked over to me and messed with my hair. I stand up and try to intimidate him. I am a bit shorter than him so that didn’t work. He just laughed.  
“You’re cute Callista.” He winked at me and laughed more and walked inside. I was still upset. Out of the corner of my eye Pinkie had what looked like a jealous face on her. I think most of us knew she liked Gee and Gee liked her but they didn’t know they liked each other. Gee probably didn’t want to say anything because he doesn't want to cause anything and Pinkie is probably just too shy.   
“Then when are we going to Dr. D’s?” I yell and begin to run after him.  
“Callista, it’s no use. He’s not going to breach.” Mikey said, annoyed.  
“Has he even told you?” Pinkie asked, standing up.  
“No, he hasn’t and I pissed because of it.” He crossed his arms and sighed. Also grabbing a can of soda. Pinkie slowly walked inside to join Gee. I rub my face with my hands and groan. Grace came over and gave me a hug to comfort me.   
“Thanks, Grace.” I hug her back and smile to her when we both pull away.

[TIME SKIP, 2 HOURS LATER]

It has been a silent afternoon, which was out of the ordinary. We were all waiting for Gee to tell us the news of what he had brewing in his mind.   
“We’re leaving in ten! Stop being so quiet and let’s go!” Gee spoke out of nowhere from the corner. I swear he looked like he was sleeping a minute ago. He was going to walk out, but Frank tripped him.  
“God dammit!” He said as he fell, crashing to the floor. He flipped Frank off who was laughing hysterically. Gee looked upset. “Let’s just go.” He grumbled, stood up, and walked out and hopped into the car. I run after him to try and get information out of him. I wasn’t giving up. I was going to know before we got to D. D’s. Grace came running after me, then Mikey, the Pinkie, then Ray, then Frank. I sat in the passenger’s seat, Grace sat on the console, and Frank, Ray, Pinkie, and Mikey were all crammed tightly in the back. Mikey usually sat where I was sitting, so he complained about being crammed in the back with the others. He kept saying how bad Frank smelled. Frank fought back saying how choppy and bad his hair looked, which it didn’t, he was just making that up.  
“Can you two please stop fighting back there? Jesus.” I looked back and said. I was getting mad at them bickering. Frank immediately shut up and Mikey groaned out of anger. He was in a mood right now.  
“Hey!” Ray called, looking out the window. “We have company times six.” I heard Gee mutter a quiet “fuck” under his breath. We all pulled out masks on and got our guns out. Those of us who were by the window (That was Me, Gee, Frank, and Mikey) shot at them. We still had two of them following us on motorbikes by the time we got to Dr. D’s. We jumped out and all started shooting, Mikey running up to one of them and having a fight with him. Mikey won. And the other went down without a hitch. Dr. D came out with his wheelchair.  
“What the hell is all the ruckus? Damn.” He laughed. “That reminds me of the old days.” Grace pushed by all of us and ran up to Dr. D.   
“You’re Dr. Death Defying! I always listen to your radio station! Before The Killjoys found me anyway.” She smiled sweetly. She was so innocent and cute, something so innocent for a dark world.  
“And who are you?”  
“This is Grace,” Gee chimed in. “Pinkie and I found her. By the mailbox. We’re keeping an eye on her.”  
“Babysitting?” Dr. D laughed again.   
“Not quite, I feel something special about her, I don’t know what but something. Anyway, we’re here to talk to you. I need you to broadcast something for me and I need to announce something to the group as well. Or Calli might actually kill me before the end of the day.”  
“Damn right I will.”


	32. Alright, Group!

[GEE POV]  
I was looking for anyway to split the group up again. I needed to get back to Tommy’s and Mikey would catch me leaving without a doubt during the night. I needed that battery for my hearing aid. Tommy said three days and it’s been around fifteen. All of today I was coming up with this plan to get us split up again. I know I was annoying Calli the most, but right now I couldn’t care less. This was huge and needed to be addressed at a certain time. In front of Dr. D. It was another group separation, but not for two weeks like the last night. This was one for a month or more. It sounded crazy I know but this is why we’re here with Dr. D.   
“C’mon inside.” Dr. D says, mostly to Grace and wheels himself back inside.  
“Where’s Pony?” I ask. “In the city?”  
“Yeah she’s gathering information for me.” Dr. D speaks, messing with the controls of his radio board. I nod and look down, I wish Pony was here for this, that would be nice. She would be a big help to help keep everyone calm and keep them on the positive side. Not saying that Dr. D. isn’t capable of that, he is, but I think Pony is better as doing it.  
“How long has she been gone?”  
“Only about a day.” He spoke with confidence. With that confidence it told me that she was going to come back. There was always that fear that she wouldn’t return. And that feared all of us. We could all die one day. Especially during a breakup of the group like I’m about to propose. That’s why I think many people are going to be upset, we could die and not hear about it till Dr. D finds out about it and broadcasts it. The Lair looked as colorful as ever. Torn posters covered the walls, MouseKat logos were everywhere. This place is a haven to us, all of us. Against the back wall stood Dr. D’s desk where he led his radio station. He was currently playing music that I for some reason didn’t recognize. Maybe I couldn’t hear it properly, yeah. That was probably it. This damned hearing aid.  
Fuck you Ghoul and your explosions.  
That was all because of him. He was testing out a new esplosive and didn’t give a warning and now here we are. I’m deaf in one ear.   
“How long will she be gone?” Ray asked Dr. D.  
“Hopefully only three more days.” Callista was being unusually quiet until she finally said something after staring me down. Her lip was bleeding, she was picking at it. That meant she was nervous. And most likely pissed at me too.  
“Gee please for the love of the Phoenix Witch tell us what’s happening! It’s killing me!” She stomped her foot and crossed her arms.  
“Okay, okay.” I try to calm her down by putting my hand to her shoulder. “I’m sorry, I’ve waited too long. I apologize.”   
She didn’t seem too impressed.  
Even with my apology. We stood in silence for what felt like ten minutes.  
“SPILL IT!” Mikey yelled, his hands in fists.   
“Jesus.” I jumped. He never yelled and when he did that meant he was pissed.  
“I want to split up again.”  
“Oh Christ, fuck.” Frank ran a hand through his hair then bit his lip.  
“And I want to have it longer than two weeks, closer to a month. Maybe more.”  
“You’re joking, right? Please tell me you’re joking.” Pinkie started to freak out. I walk over to her and take her hands in mine.   
“Calm down, it’s okay. Just calm down. Let me explain.”  
“What is there to explain?! You’re going to get us killed!!” Calli took a step forward towards me, giving me a glare of ‘i swear to god gee.’   
Yep.  
She was going to murder me in my sleep.  
Goodbye Party Poison.   
“We have a better chance of covering more ground if we’re by ourselves. It would make things easier. If we run into major trouble and someone dies, we’ll be fine, some of us will still be alive to continue the legacy. It’s the sad reality. We’re all denying the truth here.”   
“Okay, yeah, you’re right. I guess. . . What if something happened to some of us? We don’t want all of us to die at once. That would be the end of us.” Ray spoke up, trying to stop the upcoming riot. It wasn’t an actual riot but I felt like it could become one easily.   
“Thank you Jet.” I lend out my hand to give him a high five and he meets it with a harsh clap of our hands.   
…  
[MIKEY POV]  
“MIKEY!” I heard my brother scream. “MIKEY!!” Calli then screamed. I felt a harsh kick to my side.  
Okay.  
That was Frank.  
I sit up, dizzy. “What the fu-”  
“You passed out. Have you had anything to drink?”  
“No-o.” Dr. D. handed me a BLI branded water and I opened it and took a hearty drink. I felt the water course through me.   
Chemical water.  
Better Living Industries, folks. Wouldn’t be surprised if it had meds in it.  
“Does this have medication in it?”  
“It shouldn’t I drink that shit whenever Pony brings it in,” Dr. D states. “I think it’s fine.”  
“Okay.” I down the rest of the bottle.

[GEE POV]

Jesus Mikey scared the crap outta me. He can’t just pass out like that! God! I was talking about what Ray had said about us dying and Mikey just passed out for a good five minutes before coming to. Frank kicked him so in return I smacked him. He scowled at me, his scar exaggerating it. Pinkie seemed really nervous, Calli was scared, and Ray knew he was okay, he just didn’t drink anything. I have to get on Mikey’s ass more for that. I am his older brother after all.


	33. The Horrible Rendition of Mad Gear and Missile Kid

[CALLISTA POV]  
We made it back to the hideout later that night and ran into some Dracs on the way. Nothing bad, it was just annoying. Annoying as it always is. Gee said we had three weeks to prepare for the mission. There wasn’t a main goal for this one like there was for the previous one. On the way back Ray got a cut on his cheek. It wasn’t anything to be worried about, he just cleaned it when we got back. I was still pretty pissed at Gee, but he didn’t have time to notice. He was too concerned with Mikey and his fainting spell, though we all know it was because he probably didn’t drink enough to keep him well, alive. None of us knew why he didn’t do it, we just accepted it as Mikey and tried to help him with it.  
“Gee what do we have to do get prepped?” Frank asks, basically taking the words out of my mouth.  
“First off,” Gee laughed, being back to his usual cocky self, standing by Mikey making sure he was eating some Power Pup. “We have to dye my hair.”  
“Jesus Christ Gee.” Mikey groaned. “The fuck?”  
“I need to look good man! Duh. I’m not going to kill Dracs looking like this mess.”  
Pinkie giggled from the corner. And blushed. She tried to hide her cheeks with her hair, but her blonde hair didn’t cover her her flaming red cheeks.  
“Seriously Gee.” I cross my arms and sit next to Pinkie. “C’mon, what do we need to do so we can do this mission?”  
“Well, what we always need.”  
“That doesn’t answer my question, redhead.” We started to fight now and Grace wasn’t having any part of it. She ran out of the hideout and Gee went to chase after her.  
“Hey!” He called to her. Before he could go outside I ran after her. Gee thinks he can comfort her and he can, I just think I’m better at it. I go outside and she has something in her hands. I sit down next to her.   
“Did Gee and I upset you? I’m sorry. We were getting a little loud.”  
“You did a little, I’m sorry for running out.”  
“What do you have in your hands?” I ask, reaching out for it. I wanted to change the subject.  
“It’s a doll I found, in the sand today.” She hands it over to me. I dust the sand off of it and take a closer look. It was tattered to no end, had a helmet sewed to it’s head, and was holding a ray gun. It looked familiar but I could be wrong.  
“Why are you keeping it? It could belong to someone else.”  
“I wanted to give it a home.”  
“Where was it when you found it?”  
“When Mikey passed out, I went outside and find it stuck in a small sand dune outside of Dr. D’s.”  
“Is Grace okay?” Gee poked his head out.  
“Yeah, she found this doll though. Do you know anything about it?” Gee walked over to the doll and I handed it to him. He tossed it around in his hands then gave it back to Grace.   
“I have no clue.”  
[TIME SKIP, 20 MINUTES]

“Gee! You’re getting hair dye everywhere!” Ray yelled at Gee whose head was slathered in red goop and he was headbanging to Frank’s poor singing of Mad Gear and Missile Kid. He was banging on the walls, pretending to drum and screaming at the top of his lungs,   
“WE GOT A MEDICAL EMERGENCY, MEDICAL EMERGENCY!” Which were lyrics to “Black Dragon Fighting Society.” I couldn’t help but laugh at the sight I was seeing. Hair dye was being flung everywhere, including into Mikey’s eye. He stood up and playfully pushed Gee and then laughed. We were all having a good time.  
Except Ray.  
Ray wanted to have a fun time but he was too busy being a mom.  
“Ray! Lighten up!” I yelled over the noise. “This place is dirty no matter what!” That seemed to get him out of his mood. Minutes later he was enjoying headbanging to the sound of Frank being, well, Frank. To me, this is what a Killjoy is all about. Expressing yourself and have a great time with color. Soon Gee’s hair was done soaking and he took some water bottles to rinse it out, which caused some of us to get upset. We couldn’t waste water like that, not on someone’s hair. Using two bottles, he got most of it out and just used his fingers to get the clumps out. It was funny watching him try to do that, actually. It was that fresh cherry bomb hair everyone knew. Gee’s face, neck, and fingers were all stained red as well.  
“Looks good, huh?”  
“It does!” Pinkie was the only one to speak, everyone else knew he was just out for attention.  
“Pinkie,” Frank started. “Next time don’t say anything, the loser is just looking for someone to say something. Piss him off next time that’s our job..”  
She didn’t seem enthused about it. Little did we know she would probably keep doing her normal self and complimenting Gee every chance she gets.   
“Okay Gee, your hair is done and since you insisted that was a part of preparation what do we have to do next?” Mikey asked, looking slightly annoyed. But what else was new?   
“We have to get food, weapons, batteries, and gas from what I can think of.”  
“So tomorrow will be a prep and work day?” Ray butted in.  
“Yeah, looks like it.” I interject.   
“Well team, let’s get some sleep.” Gee said, walking to his corner of the hideout and laying down, displeased that he was turning everything red.


	34. Prep

The night went by slow. There were three different attacks on the hideout, I’m afraid they’re closing in on us. Maybe it was a good idea to go different directions like Gee said. Maybe he could sense what was happening here. Wouldn't be surprised. Gee has that supernatural feeling to him. He is always complaining about the sun, maybe he’s a vampire. Who knows. I’ve heard about vampires from forbidden books inside the city that were smuggled it, that’s the only reason how I know what they are.   
But somehow we managed to get two hours of sleep each. We had to go around and raid the nearby vending machines. A grueling task to say the least, because Mikey was the only one who knew how to use the Vend-A-Hack. He refused to teach anyone else because it was “his thing.”  
God dammit Mikey.  
Why?  
It was before the sun rose when I woke up, Mikey was already awake, I swear he never sleeps.  
“Go back to sleep.” He mumbled.   
“You too.” I say in response.  
“It’s too early.”  
“Then why are you up?”  
That shut him up.  
“Fine then stay up.” He said.  
“Guys shut the fuck up.” Frank groaned. “It’s night.”  
“Um, Frank, no it’s not. It’s almost sunrise.”  
“Shit!” He got up and rubbed his eyes. “I want to go out before it gets too hot. Wearing that goddamn full face mask kills me in the sunlight.”  
“Oh yeah?” Mikey started, already causing an argument. “Try wearing a helmet like Ray and I do.”  
“Stop it.” Ray woke up, scolding them. Gee, Pinkie, and Grace were still passed out. “We need to get the rest of the group up.”  
“Let me handle it.” Said Frank. “I can take Gee.” He stood up, using his arm for support. He walked over to sleeping Gee and balled up his blue, white, and red jacket and chucked it at his face.  
“Wake up fucker!” He yelled. Gee opened his eyes and it took him a minute to realize what was happening. Then he got upset.   
“Ugh, it’s too early for this.” He flicked Frank’s face and went over to Pinkie and gently shook her awake. I went over to Grace and touched her shoulder to wake her as well. They both woke up.

[TIME SKIP, 30 MINUTES]

“Gee! Hurry up! Stop messing with your hair and let’s go!” Frank put his mask on and walked outside. I recently got a light blue, white, and orange mask. It was shaped like Gee’s. I put that on over my eyes and walk out to the car with Frank.  
“Someone’s moody today.” I laugh and hit Frank’s shoulder.  
“Didn’t sleep well.” He rubbed his face with his dirt covered face, getting dirt on his face as well.  
“Well, wanna talk about it?” I smile and lean up against the Trans AM. My smile caused a smile to appear on his face.   
“Nothing to talk about, just couldn’t sleep.” There had to be more than that, more than he was leading on. I could tell by the way he was talking, but I wasn’t going to push him.  
“Okay, you can talk to me though.” I give him a side hug, which was nothing but awkward. After that night where we slept together things seemed weird. Did we have to talk about it? Because I really didn’t. Not that I don’t like Frank it was just a weak moment for me and I don’t like those. The rest of the gang came out with their masks and helmets on. Grace didn’t have anything but Gee found a black helmet with a stop sign sticker on it and gave it to her. Don’t ask where he found it because I’m afraid to know.  
“Where are we off to Gee?” Pinkie perked up from her usual quiet self .  
“Tommy’s, the gas station outside the diner, and vending machines around the Zones. Not going to be easy though. Grace, did you bring your radio?”   
“No.” She quietly said.  
“Can you go get it please?” And with that, Grace hopped out of the car and ran to go get it. Momentarily she came back out with it in her hands. She handed it to Gee.  
“Before we leave let’s check in with Dr. D.” Gee turned the knobs of the radio until we heard that familiar voice.   
“Alright Zone jumpers, listen up! Draculoids have been seen on the border of Zone 3 and Zone 4. Keep your masks on and boots laced. Keep it ugly, keep running. This is Dr. Death Defying, here’s Mad Gear and Missile Kid.” The silence came back for a fraction of a second until “Mastas of Ravenkroft” came on. Gee passed the radio to Pinkie who was sat in the passenger seat. She held it and we all listened while Gee drove fast to Tommy’s.

…

“Everyone stay here and keep an eye out for Dracs.” Gee spoke and jumped out of the car. “I’ll be back with supplies.”  
“Haggle with Tommy! And no hair dye!” Ray called out. Gee gave a thumbs up.

[GERARD POV]  
I would’ve liked some help, but I needed to get this hearing aid battery, it’s way overdue. Tommy better fucking have it, I will throw laserbeams if not.  
“Hey! Tommy!” I wave to the guy standing behind the counter. I near the counter. “Please, god, tell me you have the battery. I’m dying here. I want to smash this damned thing.”  
“Yeah, yeah. I’ve been waiting for you. I got it in time. I’ll go grab it. Get what you need now and bring it up here.” I nod sternly and walk around the broken down store and grab food. Dehydrated food and Power Pup. Several cans and bags to hopefully tie us over for the amount of time we’ll be gone. I place it all on the counter. Tommy comes out with a little box with the BLI smiley on it.  
“How many carbons for all of it?” I squirm at what the total might be.  
“300.”  
“Did the hearing aid go up in price? Jesus, I don’t have that much.”  
“How much do you have?”  
“170. About. Just give me the stuff, please.”  
“Not going to work. 310.”  
“Tommy I don’t have the time.”  
“And I don’t have the carbons.”  
“Tommy, I will shoot you. I swear to Destroya. Please. There’s Dracs to kill.” I was getting irritated. Seriously, he can be a stick in the mud a lot. Was he like this when the original Killjoys were together?   
“Gerard, you don’t scare me. I know everything about you.” No, he didn’t or at least I don’t think he did. He did know my full name, that’s something I left behind with me in the city.  
“Stop it Tommy. I need this stuff.”  
“Fine. 150.”  
“Thank. You.” I run a hand through my newly dyed hair and pass over the carbons and take the things off the counter. I slip the battery into my pocket and walk back outside to Frank sitting in top of the car, smoking a cigarette.   
“Were you two fighting in there? God.” Frank said, pulling the cig from his mouth to speak.  
“Matter of fact, yes. He’s an idiot. Wanted to charge me 300 for food.”  
“The fuck? What? That’s insane! He can’t do that.” Said Callista, upset.  
“I’m pretty sure he can. Because he tried to.” I get back into the car. “Let’s go.” Frank gets back into the car and tosses out his cigarette. 

[CALLISTA POV]  
We drove around to numerous vending machines until we had all the batteries and guns we needed. Guns were needed mainly for backup and batteries for out guns and anything else we might need them for. Now, on our way to the diner gas station.  
We made it there and Gee and Frank got out to fill the containers that were in the back of the car up with gas so whoever had the car would have enough gas to get them through. They filled up five large containers with gas and used half of one to fill up the car there. They could’ve just filled it up using the pump, but they didn’t. Probably didn’t want to spend the extra carbons.


	35. A/N

I'm so sorry for the long wait! Writer's block has been kicking me down. Expect a new chapter by the end of the week!

ALSO FRANK FUHKING IERO NOTICED ME ON TWITTER


	36. On Foot, Again

[THREE WEEKS LATER]

Gee claimed there would be groups. The fucking liar. The only group there is Grace and Gee.   
“Please, can we form some kind of group? Like Calli and I for example.”  
“Kiss up.” Said Mikey.  
“Shut up. We all know Pinkie can’t be alone. She will get herself killed. I’m asking for her sake.”  
“We all know /that’s a lie./” Said Gee while laughing. “The you doing it for Pinkie part of it anyway. But fine. Pinkie you go with me and Grace. Frank, you go with Callista. Final deal. Every other man for himself.”  
Mikey and Ray didn’t seem to complain, they would probably enjoy being away for a bit. The rest groan but agree. “Great, finally a /solid/ plan.” I teased.   
“Are we going to have objectives? Or just go out and fuck things up?” Frank crossed his arms and stood in disapproval. But he looked slightly more comfortable with the situation now that he was going to be with me. Weirdo. 

I really don’t understand him.

“We’re going to destroy any BL/ind evidence we can find, not limited to cameras.” Said Gee proudly.   
“Well, sounds like a plan to me.” Ray gave Gee a high five.

[TIME SKIP, TWO HOURS]

They were all in place and set to head out for their next expedition.   
“Who gets the car?” Asked Mikey, probably wanting it for himself. Lately he had been complaining about wanting to find and repurpose a BL/ind motorbike.   
“No one gets it, it’s staying here.” Gee responded sternly, without hesitation. Mikey grunted and let out an inaudible “fine.”  
“Alright, we know the plan and the routes we’ll be taking, let’s get out of this hellhole.” Frank pumped his fist in the air and ran out.  
“Um, Frank? Supplies?” I laugh and chase after him.  
“Shit. Well, not my problem.”   
My laugh turns into a groan and I walk back inside to gather up food and water rations for the both of us. Gee is monitoring how much we take.   
“Gee, you don’t have to worry about me.” I take what was assigned to Frank and I. “You know me. It’s Grace you have to watch out for.” Out of the corner of my eye I see Grace trying to sneak a can of Power Pup.   
“Grace!” Gee snickers and smiles, taking the can from her. “It’s already half empty, go ahead and finish it.” He hands it back to her. She giggled and ate the rest of the can. I walk back out to Frank.  
“Shall we get a head start?” He said.   
“Ghouly, you’re still forgetting something.” I use my hand to mess up his hair.  
“And what’s that, Candy?” He bats my hand away, smiling his goofy smile.  
“Your mask.”  
“DAMMIT.” He takes off in a run back into the hideout. He came out moments later again, finally and completely ready to go. He threw on the mask and so did I. I never lost mine because it was around my neck all the time just like Gee’s. Mikey and Ray had helmets and Frank just had a full face mask that was purple and green. Grace didn’t have anything until recently. But searching through a garbage mess we found her a silver helmet, but it sadly didn’t cover her face. We couldn’t anything of that sort so far. Following Frank the rest of the group walked out.   
“Calli and I are leaving, see you losers in what? A month?”  
“Month and a half.” Gee corrected him.  
“Jesus.” He shook his head and took off. I smiled at the group, waved, and chased after Frank again.

…

[FRANK POV]  
I’ve said this many a times but most of the time Gee’s plans suck ass. I don’t know why he thinks these are good ideas. Just thinking about it makes me frustrated. Apparently my frustration was noticeable to Callista. She nudged my shoulder.   
"Frank? Why the face?" She smiled, showing those beautiful teeth. God I was falling for her and I didn't like it. God help me.  
"What? Oh, nothing. Just Gee's plans something make me upset. He's going to get us all killed eventually."  
"Frank. Let me explain this to you," She moved some of her hair out of her face as we walked across the desert, heading to Zone 5. "Like it was explained at Dr. D's. If we get into a big encounter, we'll die together and that's it. We lose. He wants to split up in case something bad happens and, tragically, we'll still die, but it will be separated. The rest of us still have a chance."  
"But what if. . .What if things get really bad? When we're alone I mean. What if that happens?"  
"Frank I just explained that. At least we won't be together."

Dammit.  
She won.  
I stayed quiet.

"Frank, we'll be fine. Between your shooting skills and my fighting. We'll do fine."  
"But what everyone else?"  
"Again, we will all be fine."  
I was about to blow up, I was just getting fed up for no reason.  
"Calli! You don't know that! Next thing we know we could hear about how everyone was ghosted! We'll be the only ones left. I might as well die at that point too."  
"Frank. . . Stop it. Stop it now!" She stopped walking and crossed her arms, starting to look upset too.  
"//If// that happens it's our job to start a new generation and find recruits. You KNOW how many people look up to us! It'll be easy. Sure it'll be hard losing them, but. . . You know what? Let's just stop talking about this now." She shot ahead of me and kept walking. I'm pretty sure I pissed her off a bit.   
We walked in silence until we saw the sign for Zone 5. I ran forward and grabbed Callista's hand.   
"Calli I'm sorry. Okay? I was pissed off. Can this silence please end?"  
She looked back at me and looked at the sand. "I'm sorry too." I let go of her hand and extend my arms. She lets her guard down for just the tiniest amount of time and nears me. I wrap my arms around her and rub her back. She pulls away.  
“Let’s go find shelter.”


	37. I've Been Abandoned By These Losers

[RAY POV]  
Ever since joining The Killjoys I’ve longed for alone time. And this was finally it. Thank Destroya. Don’t get me wrong, I love the group, love them like family for God’s sake. But from my background, I enjoy being alone, since I was for so many months, after my parents were stolen from me.   
I remember, oh how could I forget, when I was alone in the desert, lurking around, I saw a girl being pummeled by Dracs. I rushed to save her, I couldn't just let her die. I would live with that forever if I did. She was on the brink of death when I saved her. I had a worn out gun so mostly had to use my strength to ward them off. I remember her collapsing into me and I had to keep reassuring her she was now safe and she could tag along with me from then on. Her name was Reiko Aire. Part of the group The Drooges. The Drooges are trigger happy, violent people. They do their talking with blunt objects and guns. There's accounts that Dr. D has told me where they smashed people's heads in with no mercy. God, how could another human being do that to another? I don't understand that. What cruel creature would do that?  
Now that I'm alone again, I want to go find Reiko. I broke my promise to her for her to stay with me, I found The Killjoys and we grew apart. When I found her first off she was by herself. Her group abandoned her. I resent them for that. Reiko was of course rough around the edges, but I took care of her as much as I could. And I want to make that up again to her. I have to, I won't be complete if I don't do that.

...

I've been walking for a few hours now, it's also evening and I have to find shelter. I surveyed the area and I'm by Tommy's store. Maybe I could camp out there without getting killed. Not by Dracs mind you, by Tommy. He gets pissed at just about anything, especially when people solicit around his store. Out of most things he hates that a lot.  
I found his store and went around the back to sit and eventually hope to go to sleep. Hopefully if Dracs find me Tommy will hear it and save my ass.

That's asking a lot though.

As I was dozing off, I saw a figure near the front of the store, taking the long way. They looked like they were gearing to break in.   
"Hey!" I call out, getting my gun out.  
The person stopped and looked like they cocked their head at me, they started to run towards me.   
"RAY!" I heard that familiar, raspy voice call out in excitement."  
"Reiko?" I smile wide and put my gun back to its place. "Holy shit!" She wasn't much of hugger, so we settled for a high five.   
"Damn, out of this big desert, I found you. Why did you leave." She crossed her arms, possibly out of anger.  
"Man you're not going to believe this!" I became excited, I get to explain The Killjoys again, man it's been awhile since I've done that. "Have you listened to Dr. D at all?"  
"Yeah, I have. Why? Do you have beef with him?"  
"No, no no no. You've heard the name Jet Star and The Killjoys right?"  
"Ray, I'm no fucking idiot. Of course I've heard of them, do you have some fight going on with them?" She knew I wasn't the fighting type, she must've been joking around.  
"Rei! That's me! I'm Jet Star! I'm in The Killjoys, I have been for awhile. I'm sorry I had to leave, bigger things called." 

I immediately regret saying that to her. It caused a switch to flip.

"Really? BIGGER things? Like I'm not important right? Damn, that hurts. . . //Jet Star.//"  
"Reiko, I didn't mean it that way, okay? I get to save more lives now, not just one. Please get what I'm saying."  
"Oh I get what you're saying!" She shook her head. "I get it /all./ You wanted to get away from me huh?"  
"Rei no-." I was getting agitated with her.  
"Uh huh sure. but fine I forgive you, mostly because I need help again. I've been abandoned again and I'm starving. Tommy is asleep yeah?"  
"They what? The losers. Do they even want you anymore?"  
"Don't know, don't care. Answer my question dipshit," She punched my arm. "Is Tommy up?"  
"I haven't heard anything, so probably not. He's old keep that in mind."  
"I need food let's break in."  
"Reiko, no. We'll wait till it's open. I have some food, here." I search through my stash and give her a can. "Please don't eat all of it, I need that to last for almost two months."  
"Jesus?! Really? Your group abandoned you too?"  
"No, G-- Party Poison just had this stupid plan to break into groups, but I get what his goal is, though."  
"//The// leader? Party Poison? Sorry but he sounds like a douche Ray."  
"Jet Star." I correct her. "Call me that in the desert. BLI could be listening."  
"Woah, speaking of BLI, you're wanted now? Damn we have that in common."  
"You're wanted? My sweet, innocent Reiko is a wanted girl?" I ruffle her hair and she scowls at me.  
"I may have wrecked a van and they caught it on camera. They want me dead now. I'm known by them. Sucks, but I like living on the edge." She smirks and goes to grab her gun to fidget with it. "Oh yeah and this is broken too."  
"You go through so . many guns a week Rei. Wow, I wish Kobra Kid was here, he could get you a free gun. He hacks the vending machines."  
"That's sick! Take me back to meet them."  
"Man that means you have to keep me company."  
"Shut up you know you love me." She shakes her head and nears me.  
"Damn right I do Reiko. Damn right."  
I know she was joking, but I actually did have a thing for her, and that's part of my guilt of leaving her basically for dead like I did in the past. Needless to say, I regret it tremendously.  
"Are you staying here for the rest of the night? Rei asked me.   
"Yeah." I responded. "I have to to, I don't want to risk being ghosted."   
"That's a point I guess. " We stood in complete silence for a minute.   
"Can I stay with you tonight?" I look at her confused for a second the responded. "Of course you can, I have nothing against that." She smirked, but not in a mischievous way. Reiko looked at me and sat down an i sat down next to her I could get used to this again. I missed her, I never realized it but I did.


	38. The Maggot Babies

[MIKEY POV]

I wasn't going to be alone in my thoughts for this month or so. It just wasn't going to happen. I hope no one is heading towards The Nest. The Nest is in Zone 3. It's a place for parties and it's where the usual Mad Gear and Missile Kid play. That's Frank's favorite band, and it quickly became Calli's as well. I usually didn't like it there, because like I said, too crowded. It was hard for me to handle. On numerous posts I saw a handmade sign for a new group playing. It was members from the group called The Maggot Babies. They were a fierce, music loving group. I don't know too much about them besides those. Unlike Mad Gear, this show was free. Mad Gear and Missile Kid are still trying to make a living out here in The Zones. That must be hard.

...

I finally made it, after hours of walking and resting, to The Nest. Thank Destroya. That took awhile and it was already sundown. This band, who was not named on the poster, are supposed to play at evening time. There was a small crowd gathering the stage. I decided to watch and hopefully forget this grueling mission at hand. I saw the band members off stage. They were all girls. I was excited, I've never had the chance to watch a whole female band like this. And no one else is here with me, so I won't have to babysit for lack of words. I heard an epic scream coming from the lead singer. She had a brown side shave. The four ran out onto the rickety stage. The guitars, bass, and drums kicked it. But before the frontwoman started to sing she announced the band name.  
"We're 45Dust coming at you from The Nest! This is called 'Recognize Me!" And with that, the song started.  
"We watch the paint chip on the walls,  
And the bricks as they're fall  
I'm gonna make BL recognize me  
So they know I'm in reach!"  
That was the whole chorus. It was poetic the way she sang it. By the last chorus I caught myself singing the words, well, more like mumbling since I couldn't really hear her through the shitty sound system. Where did The Nest even get the sound system?   
45Dust played six more songs. My gaze was on the blue haired guitarist. She was breathtaking, the way her hands navigated the fretboard. During one solo she had a kickass solo. She kept making odd faces during it like she messed up but it sure didn't sound it. 

She was gorgeous. I had to talk to her after the show.

Gee has Pinkie, Frank is trying to get Calli. Why don't I try to find someone?

...

The show ended and I tried to be the loudest one cheering. It was tough, but i managed.  
"Thank you all!" The lead screamed into the microphone. "Thank you very much! Goodnight!" The band left the stage with their instruments left on the stage. I wasn’t wearing my helmet, but carrying it with me. I had some people tap me on the shoulder, wanting to talk to me, but I quietly went past them. I hope i didn’t make anyone swear my name or The Killjoys. A benefit of my height is I got to see where the members went. They all went inside The Nest. It was already loud from the outside, way worse on the inside. I decided I couldn't handle the inside of The Nest without going completely insane.  
Instead I go around the back where most of the drunks who wondered hang out. It wasn't that pretty of a sight out here. The music still blared from inside from industrial speakers.   
"Ko-Kobra Kid??" A drunkard walked up to me. She was petite to say the least. She clasped onto my shoulder so she couldn't fall. I hold up her up and help her stand on her own two feet again.  
I laugh. "Yep, that's me. Did you come with a party?" She nods with her eyes rolling back into her head and then collapsed onto the ground. I picked her up and faced the inside of The Nest.  
My loud voice rips through the place. "Who was this girl with?! She passed out!" Everyone's heads turned to me and a person quickly claimed her and I brought her back outside and the male followed.  
"She asked who I was then collapsed." It was like the man hadn't noticed yet. "Woah, holy shit. You're a Killjoy!!" I nod. "Yeah, and I saved this girl, you good?" I pat him on the shoulder.   
"Yeah, just need to keep an eye on her."  
"Alright cool."  
"Thanks again Kobra Kid." The man put his hand out to high five me and I took it. Out hands collided with a snap.

...

I banish the sound of the obnoxious music from my mind as I still sit out outside the The Nest. No one else has bothered me surprisingly. I sat leaned against the wall of The Nest. I close my eyes, breathing in the sharp dry air the desert has to offer. That's until someone else touched my shoulder. They didn't actually touch my shoulder, it was more of them sitting next to me and I felt them.  
"Too much for you inside, huh? It's too much if even a Killjoy can't handle it." I open my eyes and look to my left. It was the guitarist I saw from earlier. "I saw you in the crowd. Did you enjoy the show?" Before I had the chance to respond she cut me off. "Nevermind, I don't want to be disappointed. That was a stupid question to ask." She smiled her dynamite smile. "Sorry, Kobra Kid."  
"Actually," I spoke up, smirking towards her. "I liked it. I was digging it. I wish the others were there to see it too. Fun Ghoul would've really enjoyed it. So would've Acid Candy, maybe even Party." I studied her face. She was pale, the black roots of her hair showing through the blue. She had brown eyes with light pink lips. "What's your name?"  
"Electric Lithium."  
"Now that's a cool ass name." I fully smile. "I like it. Anyway. . . Can't handle the party inside?"  
"All of my group members are doing nothings but snorting ungodly chemicals into their systems, I didn't want to be around it." As soon as she said that I smelled a whiff of Zone Weed on her.   
"Don't want to be around it huh? You sure smell like it."  
"I never said I didn't smoke those said ungodly chemicals, just don't snort them. I tried it and didn't like the feelings. It almost stings."  
"Never tried it, can't empathize. Who is your group? There's too many to keep up with now."  
"The Maggot Babies!" Her face lit up. "We have sixteen members and we are all like brothers sisters, and well, those who don't identify."   
"LITHIUM!" An unknown face called out. "To the van!"   
"Fuck, gotta go. It was nice talking to you."  
"Wait! Where are you going?"  
"Zone 6, why?"  
"Could I tag along?"  
"Um? Let me ask." Electric Lithium ran off and asked if 'A Killjoy' could tag along. One of who I assumed to be the leader crossed his arms and nodded. Lithium made an advance towards me and I ran towards the van."  
"Welcome, stranger." A person with green and pink hair approached me. "Where's your posey?"  
"We seperated for the time being and frankly I don't want to be alone right now. I saw the 45Dust set and got to know Lithium-"  
"Okay okay enough explaining, hop in the van." The leader said and climbed onto a motorbike.  
The van was a repainted BLI hijacked one. I noticed because of the interior of it. Their gear from the concert was in here including more instruments. Everyone was talking shit about other members and laughing about it. I stayed quiet, not knowing what to say. Why did I feel unwanted? A hard case started to fall towards Lithium. It would’ve crushed her, well it would if I didn’t grab it and move it back into place. She screamed before noticing it didn’t hit her.  
“Thanks, Killjoy.”  
“I have a name.” I mumbled.  
“Mhm, sure.” She laughed, joking me.


	39. It's On Me, Please, Pick Anything

[CALLISTA POV]  
It’s been a whole week now. Frank and I are now in Zone 4 near an abandoned restaurant. It’s where we’ve been taking shelter.  
"Frank? Have you found any food back there?!" I yell towards the back of the restaurant.  
"Um, Calli? Come back here!" He sounds like he's in distress. I start to worry, grab my gun from it's holster and run back to the back.   
"What's going o- Holy...Shit..." There's a dead body on the ground.  
"Looks old." Says Frank. "But we without a doubt need to get rid of it."  
"Yeah no shit." I say. It wasn't anyone from BLI. Must've been killed by BLI. "Poor guy. Let's get him out of here." I pick up his legs and Frank supports him by his shoulder. His back is covered is now blackened blood. With some stumbling, we get him outside. We drop him on the sand.  
"Help me to start dig a hole for him." I say, kneeling down in the sand and starting to dig with my hands. Frank joins me and in a matter of minutes we have a hold big enough to fit the corpse. Frank drags him in and I cover him up.   
""Poor soul, damn."  
"It sucks, god fuck BLI so hard."  
"Everyone is counting on us, this is why we have to keep going."  
"Mhm." Frank nodded and walked back inside now. I followed him. "By the way, there was some food. Looks expired, but does that shit ever go bad with all the chemicals in it?"  
"No it doesn't," As someone from the city, I knew that for a fact. Mind you, no one in the city ate that shit, but we learned about it. In case the community were to collapse in "Extreme Catastrophe." "It never goes bad, it's so packed with medication and chemicals, like you said. It's safe. Just another BL/ind lie like virtually everything else in the city." I wanted to go on a rant now, but Frank put his hand on my shoulder and stopped me.  
"Now is not the time, Callista. Eat up."   
I smile at him, he was caring, but also had that nasty side to him. Not to any of us, to anyone that got in our way. Passive aggressive to us, aggressive to everyone else. We sit and plow through two cans of Power Pup. It tasted like death, but we had to eat. You would think we would get used to the taste, but we weren't. And probably never would. Would we ever taste real food again. It then came on me that Frank has probably never tasted real food. I have since I grew up in Bat City, so naturally, I had to ask.  
"Frank?"  
"Hm?" He makes the sound with a full mouth, his glistening eyes meeting mine.  
"You've never been into the city, you've never tasted real food?"  
His brow raised in thought. "You're right, I never have. And never will. The only time I'm going into the city is when I-- //We// take it down. No time else will I go in."  
"You're so passionate about it." I lost my train of thought, looking at his face.   
I don't know how long I was staring, but it finally hit me that Frank was snapping his fingers in front of me, looking worried.  
"Callista??" I snap back and look at him and then look down to the ground. He smiles with a little giggle escaping his lips.   
"Damn, sorry." I mumble and take another bit of food.   
"Don't be." He scoots more close to me, our shoulders almost touching. Now he was just smiling at me. I started to feel awkward again, but it wasn't bad. I couldn't explain it with words of this world. It was so odd. "Wanna go do some work and take down anything we find?" I nod and stand up, not finishing my second can. Frank downs his and comes outside with me. I put my mask on and he grabbed his and threw it on. "Let's go." He says. I take off in a run and he chases me, I'm not running in any direction specifically. I saw something and stopped in my tracks. Frank tried to dig his heels in but ended up toppling over me and collapsing the both of us on the sand. We share a laugh. Frank's arm landed on my side, but I just keep laughing. He's not moving it.  
"We need to go." I say in between catching my breath and standing up. "I saw something over there."  
"Lead the way, Acid Candy." He smiled again.

Smiling fool.

I saw something shiny in the bushes, I'm not sure what is was but thought it might be a camera. When we got over there, I was right. Frank gently pushed me aside and shot it.  
"Woah you're not taking this one down all by yourself. I'm the one who found it anyway."  
"...Fine." He put his hands up in defense and I shot it and took the rest of the camera.  
"Hey, Candy? What's that over there? Looks like a store."  
"Well, I don't know. Let's go find out?" I grab his hand and start running in that direction in which the building is in. We get there and it's unnamed. We walk in, with our masks still on.  
"Hello?" A feeble old lady asks as we went inside. She was taken aback. "Oh, Oh my.... Killjoys? What a pleasure! Please, pick anything. It's on me. Thank you for saving us."  
She seemed to be running a store for art supplies. Gee would love this place. I make a mental note of where it is for the next time I see him again. I start to look around and Frank seems to be watching me. The old lady mumbled something to herself. It sounded like she said "fun ghoul and acid candy..." She was still astonished apparently. I was looking around and browsing until I saw containers of water-based paints. Gee told me about these and how great they were. I wanted to start painting the day he told me about it. It sounded so the opposite of everything I've ever done.  
"Ma'am let me pay you for this. How much?"  
"No, no, no, Acid Candy, no. It's on me. Please." I sigh, and agree with her. We did need to save carbons and for the amount of paint here we wouldn't be able to pay for it most likely. I was going to call to Frank to get paintbrushes, but he was already ahead. He came up next to me holding a bundle of them. I maneuver my hand so it’s free to shake the lady’s hand. She smiles a sweet smile and shakes my hand.  
“Thank you for stopping by dearie.” She grinned and let go of my hand.  
“Thank you for being so kind.” Frank says and smiles back. “Candy, we should head out now, we got really sidetracked and we’re losing time.” He wasn’t wrong. Yes, we had still a month and a couple weeks, but every moment was precious. I waved to the lady as we walked out.   
“Woah this is amazing.” I lit up and Frank smiled at me. 

[FRANK POV]  
Just talking about something colorful still made Callista light up and that made me happy to see her enjoying herself.

...

[CALLISTA POV]  
We got back to the restaurant and put our findings down. It was a little past midday so we still had some time to go out and find BLI property. And that’s what we did.


	40. Shit

[PINKIE POV]  
“Grace? Wake up.” I shake her gently. “We need to move, we have company.” I tried to stay calm but it was hard for me. Gee was outside trying to keep them at bay. God there were a lot. At least nine. Gee couldn’t take them by himself, it just wasn’t possible. He told me to keep Grace safe, but I had to help. I had to to keep him alive. Grace wakes up, scared. I tell her to keep here and not to move. Getting my mask, I run out and take my gun out and start shooting.  
“DANGER HEART!” Gee yelled at me. “GET BACK INSIDE!” I refused to listen. I kept shooting, eventually killing one of them. Gee had already taken down three of them by himself. Four were down entotal. Five more to go. They were all Draculoids, until. . . Oh no.  
A van pulled up. More Dracs poured out and then there was Korse. We walked out and eyes both of us. Our first job was taking down the Dracs this time. Gee stopped complaining about me being out here when Korse showed up. He knew that he couldn’t do this alone. Oh god, his plan was backfiring. This isn’t good. 

[GERARD POV]  
I needed Pinkie to get back in so we wouldn’t get killed. I gave her a bit of training to help her with her shooting but it didn’t help that much. Then master douche Korse showed up and I really needed her to do well. I wonder if Grace is still asleep. Probably. He stared me down, causing me to lose my focus. After minutes and minutes, one Drac was left. Pinkie distracted them while I got behind them and shot them in the back of the head. Korse aimed his gun at me and I did the same back to him. Pinkie aimed hers too.   
“The Girl. We know you have her. Give her to us.”   
“She belongs to us.” I speak up. Another van pulls up, oh god dammit. More Dracs. The swarm in and Pinkie screams. We both fall to the ground.

…

I wake up to the sound of struggling. My eyes flutter open and I see Grace being held by the neck by Korse.  
“Keep. Running.” He says and my eyes flutter shut again. I wanted to help him and just kill him, but I couldn’t move. I was stunned. Pinkie was still be passed out too. Dammit. We lost her. I couldn’t live with this.

[GRACE POV]  
I scream, trying to alert someone. But nothing worked in my favor. Korse covered my mouth so any noise was muffled. He drug me into the van and made me sit down between two exterminators. I was scared, more than scared. Horrified. What were they going to do to me? I just lost The Killjoys. My saviors. Were Gee and Pinkie dead now? I cry. I can’t handle losing them. It’s my fault for coming across them.  
“We’re taking you to Battery City.” Korse smirked. “You’re very special to us.” He then started to speak to the driver. “Take Route Guano all the way to the entry. Accelerate!”   
Ray  
Mikey  
Frank  
Callista, anyone. Please help me. I don’t want to die.


	41. FIght And Makeup

[CALLISTA POV]  
We had a Drac encounter on our way back, and I got injured. Nothing major, just a few deep scrapes. Frank wanted to help me, but I told him I could handle it by myself. That seemed to set him off. The both of us got back and I sat down at a booth. Frank sat on the table.  
“I want to talk about something.” He said.  
“Alright, what’s up?” I rub my arm where it hurts from the scape and it burns. Frank started to speak but then, he just stopped and got up.   
“Nevermind. It doesn’t matter.”  
“It does to me.” I say and throw my hands up. Frank doesn’t respond and walks back to the kitchen of the restaurant. “Frank, c’mon.” After minutes of me asking him to come out he did with an almost mad expression on his face.   
“Do you know what’s up? I’ll tell you.”  
I stand up.  
“Callista. I can’t help it anymore. I like you, god damn do I like you! And it hurts, okay?” I could hear the desperation and part anger in his voice. I tried to form words, I couldn’t.  
“See? You can’t even say it back. I’m leaving.” What was he talking about? “Maybe it’s this god damn desert causing this. I give in, goodbye.” He stormed out.  
“FRANK.” I run after him. “Where do you think you’re going?!”  
“I’m going to city. I can’t do it, Calli! I can’t.” He continued walking away.  
“Fine! Go through what I went through! Have a good fucking life.” I rolled my eyes and walked back inside before breaking down. If he gave me a few more minutes I would’ve said it back. We’ve grown together and after laying with him and him comforting me how could I say no? To try and distract myself I took my paints and started painting on the wall. When I was done it was a sloppy BLI logo with red eyes and then I crossed it out violently. Once I put down the brush I cried again. What if Frank never came back? That thought hurt me more. I decided to go outside, it was evening now. I sat again the wall, waiting for him.

…

When I woke up it was early morning. Looking around outside, no sign of Frank. I cried loudly again, he was gone. I stood up to make my way inside.  
“Where are you going?” I felt a light touch on my shoulder. I do a sharp turn to meet those hazel-green eyes.  
“Frank. . .” I wrap my arms around his neck and cry into his shoulder. I feel his breathing change as if he started crying too. His arms pulled me closer.   
“Let’s get inside.” He whispered. “I’ll explain.” He stopped hugging me, I see the tears glisten down his red face. He smiled and I followed him inside. I was behind him and I blurted out.  
“I-I like you too. I just couldn’t say it.” He faced me with a surprised look. “Now you know it, let’s just do something else. Here sit.” Frank looked confused but sat on the floor. I sat across from him and put my hands out in front of me.   
“Give me your gun, I want to paint it.”  
“Ok?” He giggled and took it out, he pretended to give it to me, but grabbed my hand anyway and pulled me into his lap.  
“Huh?” I gaze into his eyes. Frank moved a piece of hair out of my face and took my face in his hands and touched his lips to mine gently.   
He’s. . . He’s kissing me. This is my first kiss. I don’t know what to do. I close my eyes, since his are too. I push back against him lightly and wrap my arms around his neck. Frank laughed as he pulled away and smiled at me.  
“You’re beautiful.” He then kissed my forehead. “Here’s my gun.” It took me second to process everything but I did realize I was still in his lap. I blush and get out of his grasp and took my paints to paint his raygun. I felt him staring at me the whole time.

…

The rest of the day went by quickly as we kept each other company. It was now night and Frank has pushed two of the booths together to form some sort of bed. I laid down and Frank leaned against the wall.  
“Frank just come up here or push more booths together.” I felt bad.  
“No, I’ll be fine,” He yawned. “Goodnight Calli.” He closed his eyes. I curled up by myself and drifted off, trying to keep our kiss in my mind. 

…

I was awaken by yelling from across me, where Frank was. It was him yelling. I sprung up and looked expecting to see a Drac or worse standing there. But no, he was still there sleeping. He kept yelling, “Don’t take her!” In his sleep. I kneeled down next to him.  
“Frank, come on. Wake up.” I shook him and he woke with a jump. He was sweating in his sleep.  
“Thank god, you’re safe.” He hugged me.   
“Frank you’re scaring me, what was that? Night terror?”  
“Must’ve been. Felt real.”  
“Come up here with me.” I stood back up and walked a step back to the booth and laid down. He followed, laying down. I got closer to him and he wrapped my hands around me just like the last time this happened. My hands are against his chest. His heartbeat is soothing. We fell asleep together. It felt like only minutes later that he started making tiny little noises in his sleep.  
They were pretty cute, there was no need to wake him for that.” I traced his face with my finger and he seemed to calm down.


	42. This Is What You Do In Your Freetime?

[MIKEY POV]  
It was a long trek to Zone 6. That’s where we were going. There’s an abandoned amusement park there and that’s where The Maggot Babies hang out. It quickly became dark out and I could tell everyone was becoming tired, or at least off of their high from whatever drug they were on. 

Probably numerous.

Well, I say everyone, but Amaya was still awake. Yeah, she was dozing off here and there but still mostly conscious and awake unlike the others. Even the driver wasn’t okay. We got there and got out of the van and the cyclists behind us quickly put their bikes up against a pole.   
“We’ll just get the gear in the morning. Let’s just get to bed.” The leader said. Amaya pulled my hand and led me in a different direction than everyone else. We were headed to a rickety ferris wheel. We got to the base of it and Amaya started to climb it.  
“You’re going to fall. That thing looks like it’s going to break any minute.”  
“I do this every night, to see the stars. It’s normal for me I’ll be okay.” Her body started swinging. “Come on, climb with me.” I can’t resist it. I start climbing up a different way.

…

The both of us climbed to the highest seat, which was the most broken. Someone would easily die from that fall. Amaya made it first. But I closely followed.  
“You said you liked to look at the stars?”  
“Yeah,” She curled up in her seat. Causing it to swing. “‘I’ve always wanted to know what was beyond here. Beyond this world. Beyond BL’s grasp.” The moonlight gleamed on her face, so when she smiled to the sky her teeth seemed whiter than they already were.  
“I want to know too. One time I found a torn up book about space in a landfill. There were these things called rockets that shot people up into space. Isn’t that so cool?”   
Her eyes brightened up like the moon was. “You’re joking? That actually happened?”

…

We spent the whole night talking about the groups we are apart of and the supposed paranormal experiences Amaya has had in the park. We ended up falling asleep in the ferris wheel, passed out from talking.


	43. I'm Sorry For Leaving You Again

[RAY POV]  
Reiko and I slept outside Tommys store only to be yelled at by him in the morning. Reiko then went back to sleep, which I can’t blame her it was hard to sleep out here when danger is all around you. I went inside Tommy’s and tried to use his radio. He tried to charge me for it to which I declined and just pushed past him.   
I caught Dr. D’s broadcast just in time.  
“The lushious Killjoys have split up again for an unknown reason. Acid Candy and Fun Ghoul have been spotted at the local diner, Kobra Kid has been spotted at the Zone 6 Amusement Park, Jet Star hasn’t been seen anywhere, and Party Poison and Danger Heart have a grave condition on their hands.”  
Grave danger? Oh no. My mind races.  
“They got into a clap with elite scumbag S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W Korse and got their possession taken from them. The Girl.”  
My heart sinks, they lost her. God Dammit.  
“The van holding The Girl has been spotted camping out on Route Guano having some mechanical issues. Killjoys, if you’re listening, get her back. She needs to be saved.”  
Fuck. Damn, damn, DAMMIT! I have to get her back but I can’t do it alone. Zone 6 is close to me. I have to find Mikey and get out to Route Guano. I storm out of the store, Reiko is still asleep. I grab my helmet from the floor and put it on. I left Reiko like last time it hurt me to do so, but it was needed.  
She’s going to kill me for this.  
I start running for the amusement park and I don’t look back. What the fuck was he even doing there? Probably looking for that ghost nonsense, he always believed in that since I met him.

…

I arrive to the park, feeling like I’m going to collapse, and see a group all smoking. They see me and I approach. I don’t see Mikey here.  
“Jet Star?! Holy fuck two Killjoys in twenty-four hours.”  
I didn’t mean to come off as harsh but I think I did. “Where’s Kobra Kid? I need to take him somewhere.”  
The, what I guessed was the leader, spoke up, “He’s by the ferris wheel with Electric Lithium. They’ve been talking and hitting it off all night.” He points to where the ferris wheel is. Lone and behold there he is smiling for once and chatting it up with a beautiful woman. She had blue and black hair. Good job Mikey.  
I run over and drag him by the shirt collar and whisper, “Have you heard the radio?”  
“What the fuck? Why are you here?? What? No I haven’t today.” We both look over to the girl who looked very confused.  
“Is everything okay Kobra?”  
“Hold on sorry. What, Jet?” He said.  
“Grace was taken,” I say under my breath. “The van holding her is currently on Route Guano. It’s broken down we need to go catch it. It’ll take too long to get the others. Come on we need to leave now.”  
Mikey was anything but dumb, he knew what had to be done. He looked over to Electric Lithium and nodded, as it saying he’ll be back soon. With that we left off in a sprint, heading towards Route Guano.

…

After hours of running and walking and being dehydrated, we saw the broken down van. There was no one around so they were probably inside it. We ran up with our guns and shoot the top of it. Dracs immediately scramble out and shoot. Korse was then next. He came out holding Grace by the hand.   
“You wouldn’t want her to get killed now do you?” He said pulling out his ray gun.  
“You pieces of shit!!!” Mikey screams while kicking one of Dracs in the face then shooting him.

His signature move.

There were six Dracs left to kill. This was so hard fighting without the rest of the group, but we could do it. I tried to shoot at Korse but with his robot like movements he got out of the way and brought Grace in front of him.  
“Try to shoot me again and she’s dead.” He yelled, pointing his gun at Grace’s head.   
I shoot a Drac but from behind I get held in a choke hold and brought to the ground. A Drac is stepping on my chest.  
“KOBRA!” I yell out to the best of my ability. He stops what he’s doing and shoots the Drac, but it’s too late. Korse is standing over me with a gun pointed to my head.   
“One down.” He pulls the trigger.  
“YOU FU-” I hear the last of Mikey’s voice.

[MIKEY POV]  
“YOU FUCK!!!!” My partner was just killed. I can't believe this. He’s laying there with his eyes opened sprawled out on the ground. I had to curse out Korse in anyway I knew how.  
“YOU KILLED HIM! EVIL BASTARD!” I pull the trigger at him but a Drac knocked my hand, my gun went flying. Grace covered her ears and screamed an ungodly horrid scream. That poor girl. I backhand the Drac. I’m outnumbered. Fuck. I can’t take them all. This is the end of the line. I’m sorry Amaya, I’ll never see you again. I’m sorry Ray, I could’ve saved you. I’m sorry Gee, I could’ve been a better brother. I’m sorry Frank for all the times I yelled at you. I’m sorry Callista for hurting you in our sparring matches. I’m sorry Pinkie for never giving you a chance. I know Gee loves you. I take my last exhale.


	44. Traffic Report

[CALLISTA POV]  
Over these last few days Frank and I have grown closer and closer. We were now on our way back to the hideout trying to beat everyone there. Plus we would have it to ourselves for a little bit. As we were walking, we were both out of breath, but I had to break this silence.  
“I wonder where the others are right now. I hope they’re safe.”  
“C’mon, really? They are I’m sure of it.” Frank sensed my worry and held my hand. His voice was muffled due to his mask. I sigh, his words weren’t calming me, something just unsettled me. The hideout was in the distance and Frank took off running, dragging me with him. I let out a laugh, keeping up with him. We got to the makeshift door and before we walked in Frank kissed me and said, “Welcome home.” I ruffle his hair and we walk in only to find Pinkie and Gee. No Grace, but that wasn’t that suspicious. Pinkie was laying on the couch, passed out. Gee was pacing around the room and was startled by us.  
“Shit. Scared me.”  
“Deep into thought much?” Frank laughed.  
“Not funny… Sit, both of you.” We do just that. Gee stands in front of us, not talking loud.  
“Grace got taken away. She has to be in the city now. Korse attacked us and now she’s gone. He rubs his face and I cover my mouth and grab Frank’s hand. He looks angry and distressed.   
“Gee what the fuck??”  
“I tried okay! And now Pinkie feels guilty and found some of the BLI meds and now she’s been asleep for awhile now. I failed.”  
“No.” I start. “Not yet. We don’t fail until we die. Which is not going to happen anytime soon.” I walk over to Pinkie and shake her. She makes a noise. “Hey, Pinkie, get up.” Frank and Gee start fighting. “Guys stop. Let’s just listen to the radio. Dr. D will know more than us.” Frank picks up the radio and we listen to it. The familiar voice speaks, we all sit around it and Pinkie sits up, still out of it.  
“Bad news from The Zones tumbleweeds. It looks like Jet Star and the Kobra Kid had a clap with an exterminator that went all Costa Rica and got themselves ghosted, dusted out on Route Guano!”  
No. They tried to save Grace. I dig my head into Frank’s shoulder not wanting to hear this. He looks very upset, but not angry.  
“So it’s time to hit the red line and upthrust the volume out there. Keep your boots tight and your guns close. Die with your mask on if you got it. Here, is the traffic.” Gee hits the radio, causing it to break. Pinkie sees his anger and goes to comfort him. He started to cry.   
“They’re dead, all because of my carelessness. My brother is dead!” He yells. I start to cry too. Frank wraps his arms around me and I know he’s trying not to cry himself.   
“Can you give us a second alone?” Pinkie mumbles to us. Frank nods and we walk out back. I cry violently into Frank’s neck. He shushes me.   
“They’re dead, Frank.”   
“I know, I know.” I feel a tear hit my face, it’s not mine. I look at Frank to see tears trickling down his face. I wipe them and hug him. We were now crying together. Ray and Mikey were family and now they’re dead.   
Gee came out and pat Frank’s shoulder. “We have to go into the city.” I look at him and I think he was crying more than I was. “Tonight, we’re driving and getting Grace back.”  
“You’re insane.”  
“We can’t just sit in silence now. We need to get revenge.”   
I let go of Frank and wipe my face. “Let’s prepare.”


	45. Keep Running

[CALLISTA POV]  
It’s been a long day and it is now evening. There wasn’t much prep to do because it’s going to be a one night trip and we’ll be back, with Grace. Gee hasn’t been holding up well. It was all Frank and I putting stuff into the car and getting ready. Pinkie was comforting him the whole time. He just couldn’t function. God did I want to help him, but I couldn’t. I didn’t know how to. Frank and I put the last item into the car and we leaned against it. Frank got closer to me and put his arm around me. I laid my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes, letting a tear fall. He must’ve noticed it since he pulled me into a full on embrace.   
“We’re going to avenge them.” He softly spoke, his words soothing me.  
“I’m just focusing on Grace. Damn, what could they be doing to her?” I shudder to think. She’s a child they can’t do that much to her. Jesus.   
Frank squeezed me one more time and planted a kiss on my forehead, then, called out to Gee and Pinkie. “Let’s go! It’ll be nightfall by the time we get to the tunnels!” He hops into the passenger seat of the car. I get into the back and soon, Gee trots out not looking at any of us. Pinkie follows. 

…

I’ve never seen Gee so focused. He’s never like this. It’s night and we’re approaching the tunnels that lead into the city. Gee never said a word and kept his eyes on the road. The few encounters we had on our drive, we shot and he drove. No words spoken. We were getting near the Traffic Control. This is the very one I escaped from. Old memories flood my head but I shake my head. Now is not the time.

[??? POV]  
The Traffic Exterminators saw the TransAM coming towards them, but they shot too late. Party Poison drove through them. As they entered the city the exterminator pushed a button, alerting the headquarters and more importantly, top S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W Korse.   
The Director sat inside facing the main computers. The Girl sat by her side. She was confused. She wanted to run, but knew the consequences. Death. Korse was awaken from his slumber. He was alert and ready.   
The Killjoys pulled up the headquarters and ran into the building. Their ray guns filling up the quiet night. But in true Battery City fashion, the citizens were wearing noise cancelling headphones. So they didn’t have to hear the monsterity that was taking place. Danger Heart was nervous, she wanted to hide behind Party Poison but knew she had to be brave. Acid Candy was facing flashbacks to her past. Fun Ghoul knew it was hard for her and wanted to comfort her. “After all of this.” He told himself. The S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W Unit was started to fill up. Party Poison ran over to The Girl and hugged her tight.  
“You’re safe now, follow us. Let’s get out of here” He whispered to her. She nodded and followed behind him using him as a shield. The way the four originally went out was now blocked. They had to take the long way. Korse was walking down a white hallway with his army of Draculoids. The Killjoys were walking down a similar one, heading to the same place. The main quarters.

[GEE POV]  
This is it. We were escaping. We just got to the main entrance. Draculoids are filling up and-- oh no. Shit. Fuck. Shit shit shit. Korse. He stands in one corner, shooting at the rest of us. I glance at my surroundings. A draculoid next to me points his gun to me. I pull his mask off. He now human man falls to the ground. I am taken aback. This man is no longer a robot. He can now escape and be free. I hold his mask in my hand and shoot at the remaining enemies. Korse nears me.   
I have no hope of escaping.  
I realize this now.  
His hand is placed on my shoulder, driving me up against the wall. He cocks his head and smirks. We exchanged glances as my eyes widen and watch his gun approach the underside of my chin. He keeps that smirk on his face, the last thing I see.

[FRANK POV]  
As Korse got ahold of Gee I was trying to make my way to him. Right before my eyes he was shot. He slugged down the wall. Grace covered her ears, fell to the floor and screamed. A scream that could rip you apart. We had to get Grace out of here.

[PINKIE POV]  
Grace screamed. Then I saw Gee’s body on the ground. I run towards Korse trying to shoot at him. He quickly turned around.  
“No!” I cry as I shoot. I get caught in a crossfire. I can’t breathe. I fall and I see the tip of Korse’s gun. Darkness.

[??? POV]  
“PINKIE!” Acid Candy yells. Fun Ghoul is in daze and grabs The Girl’s hand. Party Poison’s lifeless body along with Danger Heart’s are already being whisked away by BLI officials. Frank pushes The Girl over to Acid Candy. She grabs her hand and they run out. Frank soon follows out the door. They run before anyone can catch up to them. 

Acid Candy drops The Girl’s hand and falls to the pavement. She screams out in pain as she fell. She had been shot in the head. She died on impact to the pavement. Fun Ghoul freezes where he is standing.

[FRANK POV]  
I can’t believe what I’m seeing. Calli is face down, with a wound on the back of her head.   
“Grace! Run! Leave me I can’t help you anymore!” She cries, but follows my direction. I can’t live with being the only Killjoy. I had to spend my last moments alive with the one who taught me love. I kneel over Calli, roll her over in my arms and look at her. She still looks like she’s so full of life. I can’t believe it has come to this.   
I knew I always said I would only come into the city if we took it down. I was wrong. We actually did fail. Everyone’s gone. I am truly alone in my last minutes. I wish to be shot in this moment so I could see my friends again. Exterminators are rushing out. I count the seconds.

Goodbye Grace. Get out alive. 

Keep running.


	46. Epilogue

[??? POV]  
The Girl ran, not looking back to see Fnu Ghoul’s dead body laying with Acid Candy’s. An old van with Dr. D’s radio station number pulled up. The door opened to find Dr. D, Show Pony, and DJ Hot Chimp. Dr. D extended his arms out to The Girl. She was scooped up into the van and taken safely back to The Zones. Where soon she would meet the unmasked Draculoid, Agent Cherri Cola.   
Back in the headquarters, officials shaved The Killjoy’s hair and zipped them up, then led them to the BLI incinerator. Through fingerprint technology they were able to find the identities of the six.  
Callista Wes  
Ex-S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W

Gerard Arthur Way  
Rebel

Frank Anthony Iero Jr.  
Rebel

Pinkie Temple  
Escapee

Raymond Manuel Toro  
Rebel

Michael James Way  
Rebel

Their bodies were soon to be gone forever. Better Living Industries had won. The war was over. After the second generation of Killjoys no one would dare try to become them again. It would be a deathwish. As of year 2021 The Killjoys were no longer. 

.END.

~

A/N -- Thank you all for sticking around so long! It’s been a long ride with this book and now I’m so so ecstatic that it’s finished. Another book is on the horizon. It will not be DD related, but perhaps a vampire AU. Besides MCR which bands would you like to see appear in the story? I’m going to take a little break from writing a full story and maybe focus on some oneshots! Again, thank you all for reading this story I’ve put my pride into it. I love Danger Days so much I spent around two summers coming up with theories and analyzing the music videos and comic. I’m in love with this story so much and there were so many unused scenes I had planned in my head. How would you like a oneshot book of all the unused scenes? 

Take care. xø - cix


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